Report: 8-member family’s SUV plunged off cliff at 90 mph

The SUV that authorities said was carrying a family of eight — two parents and six adopted children — was traveling at 90 mph before it plunged off a California cliff last week, according to court documents obtained by a local TV station.

Fox affiliate KPTV in Oregon reported that the SUV’s speedometer was “pinned” at that speed, indicating that the vehicle remained in motion after it fell and just before it hit the rocks 100 feet below on the Pacific Coast Highway. Investigators also did not find any marks showing that the vehicle either accelerated or slowed down before it reached the cliff, or any evidence that it crashed into the embankment as it “traversed towards the tidal zone below,” according the documents cited by KPTV.

The crash, which killed a family that had once captured the world’s attention, has left troubling questions. Killed are the two mothers, Jennifer Jean Hart and Sarah Margaret Hart, both 38, and at least three of their adopted children. The other three remain missing.

The TV report provides a glimpse into what may have preceded the Monday afternoon crash at the ocean over- look near Westport, Califor- nia, a small community about 180 miles north of San Francisco. Child services officials in Washington state, where the family lived, also have confirmed that they had begun investigating the Harts over “alleged abuse or neglect” days earlier.

The Washington Depart- ment of Social and Health Services said it tried unsuccessfully to contact the family on three occasions, first on March 23, three days before the crash, according to a statement. The agency tried again Monday, the day of the crash, and Tuesday.