Woman's body retrieved after vehicle goes over cliff Voëlklip Road

UPDATE: Woman’s body retrieved after vehicle plunges over cliff on Voëlklip Road

The body of a woman was retrieved from the ocean along the notorious Voëlklip Road near Herold’s Bay on Monday afternoon.

LATEST: Emergency services are on the scene at Voëlklip Road in Herold's Bay where a car has gone over the cliff. Image: X @_ArriveAlive

The body of a woman was retrieved from the ocean along the notorious Voëlklip Road near Herold’s Bay on Monday afternoon.

According to the George Herald website, this comes after the wreckage of what is believed to have been a white Toyota Fortuner was spotted in the water earlier in the day having gone over the cliff.

Second incident in weeks

This was the second such incident in the area last month.

On Thursday, 20 March, a 59-year-old man from George suffered the same fate.

The latest incident occurred at the first 90-degree bend in the gravel road at the bottom of the long descent that follows straight after turning off the R404 towards the Voëlklip lookout point.

Possible suicide

After receiving a call on Monday morning regarding a possible suicide at Voëlklip, emergency services were dispatched and confirmed a visual of a vehicle in the water shortly afterwards.

With the vehicle wedged between the rocks in the water, police divers could not immediately determine whether the woman’s body was still inside, and with the rising tide, it was a race against time to find and retrieve it while the conditions were favourable.

With the new moon springtide occurring only two days ago, on Saturday, 29 March, tide shifts are quick and vast, and the currents are strong.

As a result, rescue teams only had about a 90-minute window before and after low tide to work in.

After a thorough search that also involved the use of a drone, the body was eventually found at about 13:00.

It then took another hour and a half to retrieve it, package it and bring it back up the steep ledge to the gravel road before it could be taken away by forensic pathologists.

The Arrive Alive website posted pictures on its X page of the scene.

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