THE driver of a Tesla that plunged 250ft off a cliff with two kids, aged 4 and 7, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse.
The vehicle slammed onto a craggy Northern California cliffside beach on Tuesday, seriously wounding two children and critically injuring a second adult.
Dharmesh A Patel, the driver, will be booked into the San Mateo County jail after he's released from the hospital, where he remains with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
"CHP investigators worked throughout the night interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence from the scene," said the California Highway Patrol in a statement.
"Based on the evidence collected, investigators developed probably cause to believe this incident was an intentional act."
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The Tesla was holding two adults and two minors — aged four and nine.
Both of the crash’s adults suffered non-life-threatening injuries but were in critical condition earlier Monday, NBC reports.
The children faced musculoskeletal injuries, but all four thankfully survived in what was deemed a miracle by officials.
While the official relationship among the victims remains unclear, a statement from Patel's place of employment indicated that members of his family were in the car.
Patel is a doctor in radiology at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center.
The hospital released a statement following the event: "Providence Holy Cross Medical Center is deeply saddened to learn of a traffic incident involving one of our physicians and his family.
"We are extremely grateful there were no serious injuries.
"We will not respond further, as this incident is under investigation."
At around 10:50am on Monday, emergency responders received a report of a car that went off a cliff.
The report’s location was in the southbound direction of Highway 1, south of the Tom Lantos Tunnel at Devil’s Slide in San Mateo, California.
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Several helicopters and agencies were dispatched to rescue the accident’s patients.
These agencies included:
- CAL FIRE
- Coastside Fire Protection District
- North County Fire Authority
- San Mateo County Harbor District officials
- U.S. Coast Guard
- California State Parks (San Mateo)
- California Highway Patrol
- American Medical Response
- San Mateo County Harbor District officials
Battalion Fire Chief Brian Pottenger, who responded to the crash, said: “We go there all the time for cars over the cliff, and they never live."
According to the AP, the accident’s Tesla was not believed to be in self-driving mode according to an initial investigation.
Tesla’s three self-driving systems are Autopilot, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving (FSD.)
Tesla says its Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature “Identifies stop signs and traffic lights and automatically slows your car to a stop on approach, with your active supervision.”
FSD additionally provides automatic steering on city streets.
Tesla notes its Autopilot feature: “Matches the speed of your car to that of the surrounding traffic, assists in steering within a clearly marked lane, and uses traffic-aware cruise control.”
Tesla’s Enhanced Autopilot is the middle ground between its inventory’s standard Autopilot and Full Self-Driving packages.
Enhanced Autopilot includes standard features, like:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Emergency Braking
- Blind-spot Monitoring
- Lane-Keeping Assistance
Autopilot is standard, Enhanced Autopilot is $6,000 or $99 a month, and FSD costs $15,000 or $199 a month.
Road conditions were also not considered a factor in Tesla’s crash.
