A vehicle flew off the Pacific Coast Highway early Monday, landed upside down in the surf at Thornhill Broome Beach in Ventura County and killed the driver, authorities said.
Rescue workers from the Ventura County Fire Department responded to the call around 1:40 a.m. Monday.
Breaking waves initially hindered rescuers’ access to the vehicle, forcing it to be pulled onto the sand, fire captain Robert Welsbie said.
The driver, a woman, was dead when rescuers reached her, Welsbie said.
The fire department and the US Coast Guard have sent helicopters to search the seas for anyone else who may have been in the car. According to Welsbie, about 25 rescue workers from the city of Ventura and the Oxnard fire station were also deployed.
The Coast Guard, who also sent a boat from Channel Islands harbor, halted the search at 7 a.m. after it was determined that the woman was the only occupant in the vehicle.