Two men died and two teen girls suffered life-threatening injuries Tuesday night when they jumped off a bridge on state Route 56 in Carmel Valley following a crash in a car that recently fled from Escondido police twice, authorities said.

Another two occupants of the car ran off after the crash, which was reported to authorities about 11 p.m., California Highway Patrol Sgt. Brent Lowry said.

The six people had been inside a 2012 blue Nissan Altima that spun out and crashed into a railing on a bridge just west of Carmel Valley Road, Lowry told reporters, including San Diego News Video. He said the car ended up in traffic lanes, with vehicles coming at it.

Investigators said the six occupants of the car may have gotten out so they didn’t get hit by another vehicle, and that the four who jumped may not have realized they were on a bridge at the time, Lowry said.


When emergency crews arrived, they found an 18-year-old man and another man dead in the canyon below the freeway. Two teen girls, ages 14 and 15, were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla with life-threatening injuries, officials said.

Officers are still searching for the other two people who were in the car.

Escondido police Lt. Scott Walters said that within about 24 hours of the crash on SR-56, Escondido officers had briefly chased the Altima on two occasions.

The first time was late Monday night, about 10:50 p.m., when Escondido police responded to a reported collision near North Avenue and Broadway.


As officers pulled up to the scene, they saw the Altima picking up several people believed to be involved in that collision, Walters said. Police tried to stop the car so they could speak to its occupants, but it sped off.

“We terminated that quickly,” Walters said. “They were driving too dangerously.”

An Escondido officer spotted the same Altima around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and attempted to pull it over near El Norte Parkway and Washington Avenue, Walters said.

“Again, the driver fled immediately, and we terminated the pursuit within a minute,” Walters said. “That ended our involvement with that vehicle.”


Walters said the Altima was registered to an out-of-town address, but police in that city were not able to make contact with the registered owner Tuesday. He said reports that the Altima was stolen were never confirmed by Escondido investigators.

Officer Jake Sanchez with the Highway Patrol said he had no new information to release Wednesday afternoon about the crash on SR-56, the injured girls or the two other occupants of the car who apparently fled the scene.

The incident was at least the third in the last 16 months in San Diego County in which someone has fallen to their death shortly after a crash.

In April 2017, Martin Lapisch was on his way to work when he struck a deer about 4:40 a.m. on northbound state Route 125 just south of state Route 54 in Spring Valley. Lapisch got out of his car and apparently fell to his death while seeking safety on the other side of a concrete barrier, which he apparently didn’t realize was the edge of a bridge.


A similar death occurred in February, when 48-year-old Jacumba resident Robert Verlin Bruno, Jr., stopped his vehicle on Interstate 8 to help a driver who crashed on the Pine Valley Bridge in the East County mountains.

It was dark and foggy, and the roadway was icy, when other vehicles collided nearby. Bruno jumped a railing to avoid being hit in the crash. Apparently not realizing he was on a tall bridge, he fell about 450 feet to the creek bed below.

City News Service contributed to this report.