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.
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.
