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Zack Keithy, our author, is a certified veterinarian technician (UC Blue Ash) for over 6 years (contact him here). The articles written here are based on his expertise and experience, combined with a review by our expert vet reviewers including Dr M. Tarantino. Learn more about us here.
A driver and their two dogs are recovering after a van veered off Pacific Coast Highway near Deer Creek Road, north of Malibu, California, and crashed into the rocky shoreline below. The single-vehicle crash happened Saturday, October 3, 2026, according to the Ventura County Fire Department.
The van ended up roughly 50 feet off the road, wedged among shoreline rocks with waves breaking around it.
The driver managed to climb out on their own and bring one of the two dogs to safety, but the second dog remained trapped inside the damaged vehicle as surf continued rolling through it.
Ventura County firefighters and California State Parks lifeguards made their way down to the wreck, freed the trapped dog, and carried it back up to the roadway.
The Ventura County Fire Department said neither dog appeared to be injured.
The driver was taken to a local hospital in stable condition with minor injuries.
Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including Ventura County Fire, Federal Fire Ventura County, Gold Coast Ambulance, and the California Highway Patrol, which took over the scene afterward.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
My thoughts: What makes this one striking is the setting itself, a vehicle sitting in the surf with waves actively washing through it isn’t a static scene rescuers could take their time with, it’s an environment that kept changing the whole time they worked.
Getting down to a wrecked van wedged in ocean rocks is already a technical challenge before anyone starts trying to extract an animal from inside it.
The fact that both dogs came out of this without apparent injury, given where that van ended up, is the detail worth sitting with most.
Source: Los Angeles Times, with additional reporting from KTLA, ABC7 Los Angeles, and the Ventura County Fire Department
