"It was shocking, just really scary. I'm still shaking," said Leroy Reformina of Kihei, who saw the car tumble down the cliff about a quarter-mile on the Lahaina side of the pali lookout at about 5:50 p.m.

Reformina, who was heading to Lahaina on the Honoapi'ilani Highway, said he didn't see how the car left the makai pull-off, a dirt area without guardrails where people often stop to enjoy the view. But Reformina said he clearly saw the car plunging in a cloud of dust. He said he pulled over to help.

"I didn't have a cell phone, so I was just waving people over," he said.

After a few minutes, Romena — battered, cut and bruised — climbed about a third of the way up the cliff. "She was crying and yelling about the baby," he said.

Reformina said one motorist, who had stopped, climbed down to check on the crash victims. The car came to rest upside-down on a rocky beach. The man yelled that he couldn't find a pulse, he said.

A police helicopter arrived at about 6 p.m. and took the survivors to ambulances waiting above, and they were transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center in Wailuku.

Authorities said the baby girl was in a child safety seat strapped in the back of the sedan, and paramedics said she was making sounds when they arrived. One body remained in the sedan. The victims were friends of the surviving mother.

Officials said all four people in the car were Maui residents.

A family member at the emergency room said she was hopeful the baby would survive. Doctors indicated there probably wasn't internal bleeding, and the child was breathing on her own, she said.

The two-lane highway connects Lahaina with the rest of the island and carries a steady flow of tourists and rush-hour commuters, which had slowed to a crawl while the rescue operation occurred.

The winding pali section of the highway runs along 4 miles of steep mountainside, with a lookout and parking lot at McGregor Point that is popular with whale watchers. There are a few unpaved areas on the makai side of the road where motorists can pull over at their own risk to spot whales or look out across the ocean to Kaho'olawe and Lana'i.

Fishermen can climb down to the rocky shore below, and snorkel tour boats often anchor close to the cliffs, which offer protection from stiff winds.