A driver in Laguna Beach died on Friday after she drove her car off a parking lot embankment and rolled over, the second time that’s happened in the area in just over a year.
Laguna Beach police responded just after 7 p.m. to a car collision near the Aliso Creek Plaza Shopping Center on South Coast Highway, KTLA reported, citing police.
A 79-year-old woman had driven a vehicle over a curb and hit a fence before plunging over a 20- to 25-foot embankment, according to KTLA. The vehicle turned over and landed on its roof on the sidewalk.
The woman was pronounced dead at Mission Hospital, according to Patch.
The crash is the second time someone has plunged their vehicle over the same embankment and died.
Last May, James Politoski, 64, of Laguna Beach was teaching his 15-year-old daughter how to drive when she drove from the upper parking lot of a Gelson’s Market, breached the fence and continued down an embankment to Coast Highway near Wesley Drive and Montage Resort Drive, according to the Laguna Beach Police Department.
The teenager was injured and hospitalized in Mission Viejo, according to authorities. Politoski was pronounced dead at the scene.
Video of the scene from KTLA shows that the car plummeted off the embankment and landed upside down on the highway.
The Laguna Beach Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The identity of the driver in Friday’s crash was not immediately available.
