The body of badly burned woman was discovered about 12:23 a.m. Tuesday morning by the California Highway Patrol and Cal Fire officials after they responded to a report of a vehicle that had caught fire on impact on westbound Highway 9 near Heather Heights Road in unincorporated Saratoga.
The deceased driver was found when Cal Fire officials were attending to a car fire and discovered the charred remains inside the vehicle, said CHP spokesman John Darling.
"Everything is still under investigation," Darling said, adding that preliminary reports indicate the vehicle was traveling at a speed too great for the driver to negotiate a turn, causing the vehicle to leave the roadway, where it caught fire as it impacted an object, killing the driver.
The vehicle the woman was driving appears to be a Volkswagen Bug. It was 50 feet off the roadway and 125 feet down the embankment, which made recovery difficult, Darling said.
"At this time we have no identifying items to determine who she was," Darling said. "The car is so badly burned that the plates melted."
