Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 40, of Pasadena, has been arrested and will be booked into San Mateo County jail after being released from the hospital, according to a release from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) on Tuesday.
An Indian-American man has been charged with attempted murder and child abuse after driving his wife and two children in a sedan off a 250-foot California cliff.
Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 40, of Pasadena, has been arrested and will be booked into San Mateo County jail after being released from the hospital, according to a release from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) on Tuesday.
The vehicle was travelling south on State Route 1 when it crashed through the cliff at Devil’s Slide, south of the Tom Lantos Tunnels, and landed near the water’s edge.
According to NBC News, it flipped and landed on its wheels.
The California Highway Patrol said in a statement that it received a call about “a vehicle over the side of the cliff on State Route-1” around 10.50 a.m. on Monday.
When the CHP and other responding agencies arrived on the scene, they discovered a white Tesla that had fallen 250-300 feet off the cliff, according to the release.
Authorities managed to reach the vehicle and recover two adults and two children, aged seven and four, who were rushed “to a local hospital with serious injuries”.
According to Brian Pottenger, incident commander for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, people surviving such a steep fall were “very, very rare,” and the children’s car seats may have saved their lives.
“Investigators developed probable cause to believe this incident was an intentional act based on the evidence collected,” the CHP said in a statement.
Authorities intend to charge Patel with three counts of attempted murder and two counts of child abuse, according to NBC.
The CHP also stated that they do not believe the Tesla’s self-driving feature was a factor in the crash at this time.
