Caitlyn Jenner‘s manager and closest confidante, Sophia Hutchins, fatally plunged off a cliff in California while speeding in an ATV that was not street legal, police sources tell the Enquirer.
Sophia, 29, was piloting a blue 2013 Polaris when it careened off a 350-foot ridge on July 2, after rear-ending a 2016 Mazda 6 along Malibu’s Decker Canyon Road. The ATV crash-landed in a ravine littered with other wrecks — directly on top of an upside-down vehicle — not far from Jenner’s $3.5 million condo.
For years, locals have complained about the lack of guardrails along the steep and winding road maintained by the state.
Billy Walkowiak of Collision Safety Consultants in North Carolina tells the Enquirer that the ATV driven by the I Am Cait alum didn’t legally belong on the road. “That vehicle is not designed to be on paved surfaces or on public roads,” he explains. “It’s a souped-up golf cart that I would guarantee is not street legal.”
Emergency workers declared Sophia dead at the scene, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Raquel Utley tells the Enquirer.
Utley adds that the two women in the Mazda were uninjured and there was no evidence of “intoxication or impairment” by either party.
It’s unclear whether Sophia was wearing a helmet or seatbelt.
Sergeant Eduardo Saucedo, who is based at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, believes that Sophia was speeding when she tried to pass the other vehicle. Saucedo tells Daily Mail that it appears she was “going too fast” and clipped the rear of the Mazda, causing her to “go off the cliff.”
A family member, who did not wish to be identified, tells the Enquirer that Sophia’s parents are devastated. “[Her father] is in bad shape over this,” the relative reveals.
This isn’t the first motor vehicle death linked to the former Olympian.
In 2015, Caitlyn’s Cadillac Escalade rear-ended a Lexus, pushing it into oncoming traffic and a head-on collision that killed the 70-year-old driver. Jenner did not face criminal charges, but was ordered to pay surviving members of the crash $800,000 per ABC News.
