Man dies in fall from California’s notoriously dangerous Devil’s Slide
-
Click here to listen to this article - Share via
See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred
A 70-year-old man died Tuesday after falling from a cliff along California’s treacherous Devil’s Slide, an oceanside stretch in Pacifica known for steep terrain that has led to several fatal accidents.
Officials said witnesses saw the man, later identified as Franciscus Blom, of Boulder Creek, experiencing a medical emergency before he plunged to his death, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.
Officials with the coroner’s office for San Mateo County declined to share any possible cause or manner of death in the case.
San Mateo County emergency responders rushed to Gray Whale Cove State Beach, also known as Devil’s Slide, just before noon Tuesday after several people reported that someone had fallen from a cliff, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Specialized rescue teams responded, but were unable to save Blom, the agency said.
One person dies after a vehicle drove off a 500-foot cliff in Big Sur, according to officials.
The Devil’s Slide area was for many decades an infamous stretch of Highway 1 until officials rerouted the roadway farther inland with a tunnel, converting the old road into a popular paved trail. But south of the tunnel, Highway 1 still parallels a stretch of towering cliffs overlooking a sheltered cove. At Gray Whale Cove State Beach, a steep trail leads down to a beach.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly from where Blom fell, but the area is known to be perilous.
Last year, a woman died after falling from a cliff in the Devil’s Slide area, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal. It’s also the area where a man, in 2023, drove his family’s Tesla off a cliff, but they miraculously survived.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
In this episode, we bring you the update on how an Altadena resident and her neighborhood are coming along, plus a re-run of the two-part series we did on the Poppyfields people back in June.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Lorely Rodriguez –aka Empress Of– indie pop singer, songwriter, and producer, for a conversation about identity, resilience, and her new album Dream House, made while simultaneously rebuilding an actual house in Altadena alongside her mom.
