Boy, 2, badly hurt in crash from cliff; mother being investigated

A 2-year-old boy was still being treated Monday for life-threatening injuries three days after his mother drove off a cliff along Highway 1 in what authorities were investigating as a potentially intentional crash, Mendocino County sheriff’s officials said.

The toddler’s 5-year-old brother escaped the crash with minor injuries after the boys and their mother were rescued from their overturned vehicle on a northern Mendocino Coast beach near Westport, about 25 miles north of Fort Bragg, Capt. Greg Van Patten said.

If the crash is determined to have been intentional, the McKinleyville mother could face criminal charges for the attempted murder of her children, Van Patten said. However, detectives were also investigating whether mental illness was a factor, he said. For that reason, the Sheriff’s Office did not release her name.

The vehicle, an Isuzu Rodeo SUV according to a preliminary CHP report, was spotted Friday morning on its roof on the hard-packed sand of Chadbourne Gulch beach, Westport Volunteer Fire Chief Frank Maurice said. A beachgoer at the popular surf spot called 911 to report the crash, he said.

The vehicle had crashed at the south end of the beach at the base of a 200-foot cliff, the fire chief said. The area is about a half-mile south of a dirt road that leads down to the beach from above.

Vehicles are allowed on the beach, and it’s unclear how long the children and their mother waited for help before someone noticed the vehicle was on its roof.

“From what I understand, there was a glare from the sun, a lot of mist that day,” Maurice said. “Surfers said they couldn’t tell there was something wrong with the glare, they couldn’t tell the car was upside down.”

After the 911 call, firefighters piled into several off-road and four-wheel drive vehicles to get to the crash site. The children were stabilized and loaded into two medical helicopters that landed, one at a time, on the beach, Maurice said.

The toddler was taken to Children’s Hospital Oakland with life-threatening injuries, according to the CHP log. His condition was unavailable Monday. The other boy was also flown to a hospital. The mother was taken by an ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Detectives interviewed the mother Saturday and expected to also interview the older boy, Van Patten said.

Humboldt County child protective services was involved in the case, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.