This upcoming news may be settling, so reader discretion is advised.
You may recall the news last January about the radiologist in California who drove his family off a cliff in California in their Tesla car, causing injuries to him and his family. Now, new results from the investigation have been released, with his wife saying he intentionally drove the Tesla off the cliff because he was suffering from depression.
On purpose
Unsealed court records reveal that Dharmesh Patel, the father and the driver, drove his family off a 330-foot cliff along California’s Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) on purpose.
From the time she was set free from the crumpled Tesla off the cliff to her helicopter flight to the hospital to get treated, Patel’s wife repeatedly and unequivocally told authorities did it on purpose, in an attempt to kill his family.
“He drove off. He’s depressed. He’s a doctor. He said he was going to drive off the cliff. He purposely drove off,” Neha Patel told a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer on January 2nd when she was being flown from the incident site.
Also, according to CHP officer Aaron Sapien in the search warrant affidavit, while being extricated from the vehicle, Neha told an emergency worker “something on the effect that the driver, her husband Dharmesh Patel, did it on purpose.”
Sapien added that the wife then told the emergency worker her husband required a psychological evaluation. She repeatedly said this many times.
Another emergency worker, according to the CHP officer, also heard her say that her husband “tried to kill everyone.”
The incident
On January 2nd, just a few moments after the New Year, a Tesla crashed off the PCH in Northern California, injuring four people, including two children. During that time, authorities have already alleged it may be intentional, but no other details like what has been recently revealed were mentioned.
After he was released from the hospital, Patel was taken into custody by the CHP, and charged with attempted murder and child abuse at the San Mateo County Jail.
The cliff is located in an area known as the Devil’s Side, and if crashes like this happen here, first responders tell news outlets that they rarely find survivors. However, thanks to the features of the Tesla car, the family survived the crash.
Patel pleaded not guilty to the three counts of attempted murder in the January 2nd crash that sent the Tesla Model S he and his family were in off the cliff.
The man claims that the Tesla was throwing out tire pressure alerts for the rear tire and that he felt something was not right with the automobile. He told the police he only wanted to pull over when the car left the road.
However, eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence counter his statements. The Tesla Model S was not on Autopilot or even on Full Self-Driving Beta during the time of the crash. He also denied his mental state.
