1 student from China dead after car goes over cliff near Tortilla Flat

1 student from China dead after car goes over cliff nea…

TORTILLA FLAT, Ariz. A University of Oklahoma student from China is dead and another was injured when a car went off an Arizona highway and over a 200-foot cliff early Wednesday morning, authorities said.

The man driving the car was killed and a male passenger survived the plunge but was injured, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

Catherine Bishop, a spokeswoman for the university, said the school is working with authorities to determine identities and notify next of kin.

Details on the passenger’s injuries were not immediately available.

DPS spokesman Bart Graves said two other Chinese students also from the University of Oklahoma were in another vehicle. They called 911 when one saw the car, a BMW sedan, go off the cliff, Graves said.

Graves said the car apparently was traveling too fast to make a curve on State Route 88. The narrow, twisting highway is in extremely rugged terrain in the Tonto National Forest east of the Phoenix area.

The students, whose school is on spring break, were in the Phoenix area to visit a friend at Arizona State University.

The DPS spokesman said the accident occurred while the students were headed toward the Phoenix area while on a drive to gaze at stars.