Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 40, of Pasadena, has been arrested and will be taken to the San Mateo County Jail when he is released from hospital, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said in a news release Tuesday.
Posted Date – 01:30 PM, Wednesday – 1/4/23
New York: An Indian-American man who deliberately drove a sedan carrying his wife and two children off a 250-foot California cliff has been charged with attempted murder and child abuse.
Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 40, of Pasadena, has been arrested and will be taken to the San Mateo County Jail when he is released from hospital, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) said in a news release Tuesday.
The car was traveling southbound on State Highway 1 when it climbed over the cliffs at Devil’s Slide south of the Tom Lantos Tunnel and landed near the water’s edge.
It flipped and landed on wheels, according to NBC News.
The CHP said in a statement that it was alerted of “a vehicle going over the cliff edge on Interstate 1” around 10:50 a.m. Monday.
After the CHP and other responding agencies arrived on the scene, they saw a white Tesla fall 250-300 feet off a cliff, the news release said.
Authorities managed to locate the vehicle and rescued two adults and two children, aged seven and four, who were rushed to “a local hospital with serious injuries”.
Brian Pottenger, incident commander for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told NBC News that “it’s very, very rare for people to survive such a steep fall” and that child car seats may have saved their lives. life.
“Based on the evidence gathered, it is possible that investigators believe this incident was intentional,” the CHP said in a statement.
Authorities intend to register Patel with three counts of attempted murder and two counts of child abuse, NBC reported.
The CHP added that at this stage they do not believe Tesla’s Autopilot feature was a factor in the accident.
