On January 3, 2023, south of San Francisco, a Tesla Model Y that rolled down a 75-meter cliff came to a stop without causing any injuries.
It was south of San Francisco that the accident, then the miracle, occurred. In the Devil’s Slide, a hill facing the Pacific, a male American Red Cross employee named Dharmesh Patel was driving a Tesla Model Y on January 3, 2023. His wife and two children were on board. For the passengers, it was hard to imagine what was going to happen a few seconds later, on a bend facing the sea. For the driver of the car, everything was clear: a suicide accident in which he wanted, according to the first elements of the investigation, to embark all his family.
The car veered off the road behind the crash barriers and rolled downhill towards the ocean. After falling 75 meters, the vehicle came to a stop. The emergency services could be notified and arrived at the scene of the tragedy, to see the damage: a completely destroyed Tesla Model Y, lying at the foot of the cliff and which, luckily, had not sunk in the sea, protected by a rock barrier.
But the sequel, told by the lifeguard Brock Sommerset, is perhaps what best confirms the excellent automotive safety ratings received by vehicles from Elon Musk’s firm. The ragged car saved its occupants. Neither the father, nor his wife, nor their children died in the accident. After a visit to the hospital, doctors confirmed that the family did not suffer from any serious injuries, according to the specialized media Electrek. The rescuer said he was considering buying a Tesla. The father will be received by the police directly after leaving the hospital to be heard about his criminal act.
The Tesla Model Y flew through crash tests
The Tesla Model Y has become a benchmark in terms of road safety since its release. The probabilities of a serious accident are at their lowest for American safety organizations and the analysis has been confirmed by the European Euro NCAP crash test. The Model Y passed all the stages of the test with flying colors, flying over the mass of historical manufacturers. This California news item that could have turned into a tragedy confirms that these data are not just abstract scores — a Twitter account also had fun listing the impressive accidents involving Teslas and from which the protagonists escaped unscathed.
Something to counterbalance the magnifying glass effect of the controversies around Tesla’s accidents, amplified by Elon Musk’s escapades and the beginnings of autonomous or assisted driving.
