Two cars go over cliff along Highway 1 south of Big Sur Monday

Authorities were cleaning the wreckage of a head-on collision Monday evening after two vehicles crashed into each other and fell over a 200-foot cliff near Big Creek Bridge south of Big Sur in the morning.

The California Highway Patrol tells KION an elderly man driving a Toyota Tundra was heading northbound on Highway 1 when he apparently slammed into an oncoming van heading in the opposing lane.

Both vehicles kept traveling northbound during the collision and both cars went over the edge of the cliff onto the ground below.

A third vehicle behind the van tried passing the collision on the right shoulder to get out of the way, but it was sideswiped.

It is still unclear what led the driver of the Toyota Tundra to drive into the opposing lane, but CHP officers on scene tell KION he may have been having medical issues before the crash.

The Toyota Tundra had the elderly driver and his wife inside. The van contained a father, mother and three children. Luckily, everyone was transported to local hospitals with only minor injuries, scrapes and bruises.

CHP says everyone involved in the crash was wearing seat belts properly, and the children were properly sitting in their car seats.

This is the second vehicle crash along Highway 1 since Saturday. CHP says the first crash involved a car that simply went over a cliff along the roadway, but authorities cannot yet find a body in that case.

“Monterey County Search and Rescue searched for many hours the night that it happened and the next morning for several hours,” said Officer Justin Roberts, a California Highway Patrol trooper. “(They were) unable to locate any bodies on the hillside.”

Roberts says the registered owner of that car, a woman, is now a missing person out of the Santa Cruz area. The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.

CHP says weather was not a factor in Monday’s crash. The investigation is still ongoing.