Point Reyes Light - October 17, 2002

Family survives plunge over cliff

By Andrea Blum

A driver lost control of her car at 2:46 p.m. Sunday, and the vehicle with four people inside ran off Highway 1 south of Stinson Beach and plunged 50 feet down an oceanside cliff.

The crash was only the most recent in a series of dramatic traffic accidents that in recent weeks has caused the Highway Patrol to urge motorists to use more caution while driving in West Marin.

Sunday’s accident occurred two miles south of Steep Ravine when a northbound Toyota Corolla driven by Cintia Esther Teglia, 37, crossed the highway, missing oncoming traffic by less than 15 feet, and overturned once as it rolled down the bluff.

Fortunately for the four people in the car, there had been a slide where Teglia went off the road, and the slide had created enough of a shelf to stop the car from falling all the way down the cliff.

" They are very, very lucky that there was a shelf," said county Fire Capt. Keith Parker. "It could have been catastrophic."

Besides Teglia, an infant and two older children were in the car, and a nine year old was transported by helicopter to Children’s Hospital. The injuries to the nine-year-old didn’t appear to be serious, said Parker, but they warranted flying the child to a hospital as a precaution, said Parker.

"If you want a testimony to using seatbelts and child-safety seats, here it is," said Capt. Parker. All passengers in the car were secured by seatbelts or safety seats. Otherwise, they would have been ejected, Capt. Parker said.

"A witness to the accident in the on-coming car happened to be a nurse," Parker added, "and [she] administered proper first aid."

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