Search for driver after video emerges of car speeding off California cliff

Rescue workers find tyre tracks and car parts in water

Dramatic video captured by a motorist appears to show a vehicle plunging off of a cliff in California this week — but authorities have yet to find the SUV or the driver.

In the video, a dark SUV can be seen speeding off of the road at a curve.

Without slowing down, the vehicle then becomes airborne before plunging down and out of frame.

The footage was released by the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, after the speeding vehicle was seen around 11am on Monday.

The crash occurred in a stretch of winding coastline that extends south from San Francisco.

The video — and the vehicle’s mysterious disappearance — led to a search mission that included CalFire, the California Highway Patrol, the San Mateo County Fire Department and the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

While rescue workers found tyre tracks on the cliff, and car parts in the water, it was not clear if those pieces were actually related to the vehicle seen in the video.

Waters at the foot of the cliff are as deep as 40 feet in some places, and rescue efforts were inhibited on Monday by a high surf advisory.

“The conditions are just too dangerous for them to continue a search,” said Ber Diaz, a public information officer for the California Highway Patrol, in a statement to Mercury News.

“That is expected today and for the next couple of days as well.”

Investigators are still looking to determine what could have caused the crash, which had just one witness — the individual who took the dashboard camera footage.

“All it shows is the vehicle veering off the cliff,” Mr Diaz said. “There’s no before, and so at this point, we don’t have any information.”