Police believe a California doctor, Dharmesh Patel, intentionally tried to kill himself and his family last month by driving his Tesla off a cliff. The 41-year-old Los Angeles physician, his wife, Neha Patel, 41, and their children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, all survived the crash that had the family's car plummeting between 250 and 300 feet. The wreckage was so severe that emergency responders did not expect anyone to live through it.
The family did survive, and miraculously, as Fox News reported, despite the seriousness of the crash and the potential for significant injuries, the children are OK. In fact, the 4-year-old reportedly suffered no injuries.
The car was mangled when emergency personnel arrived.
At the time of the crash, Brian Pottenger, a battalion chief for Coastside Fire Protection District/Cal Fire, said the car dropped at least 250 feet off the cliff. Because of the seriousness of the fall and the appearance of the vehicle, no one was believed to have survived the crash.
Much to their surprise, however, the adults were conscious upon the emergency crews' arrival.
The children's survival was the most shocking.
To pull the children from the wreckage, emergency crews used the "jaws of life" in their rescue mission. The children were air-lifted to area hospitals. According to Fox News, the young girl sustained "significant injuries," but she will not suffer any long-term effects. Her brother was virtually unharmed.
"Everybody's been talking about … how only a Tesla could drop 250 feet and everybody survives. Well, for the 4-year-old [boy] who was in a child seat, no injuries at all," San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told Fox News. "Every parent ought to keep that in mind."
Investigators believe the crash was no accident.
Patel's wife reportedly told emergency personnel that her husband intentionally drove the car off the cliff at Devil's Slide on the Pacific Coast Highway. The area is notorious for crashes because there is no guardrail.
Witnesses told police they did not see the brake lights of Patel's Tesla come on before the car went over the cliff. Surveillance footage from a nearby tunnel corroborates their stories.
Patel is in jail.
Patel is being held in San Mateo County Jail without bond and is scheduled to appear in court on February 9. He faces three counts of attempted murder. Neha Patel is still hospitalized, as she had the most severe injuries from the accident. The children have been released.
"It's a shocker," Wagstaffe said. "I've seen all the photos and video of the car at the bottom, and … knowing that area, knowing that cliff, my belief is that those four people — every single day for the rest of their lives — that they wake up in the morning, they should say thank you."
Car seat safety is top of mind for many parents.
It is the hope that all parents want their children to be safe when traveling in the car. All car seats undergo strict safety testing to ensure they will adequately protect children during an accident, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For safety seats to give the best protection for a child, however, they must be properly installed and used.
"We can reduce the risk of serious injuries and death by making sure children are properly buckled in car seats, booster seats, and seat belts that are appropriate for their age and size," the CDC suggests.
The website offers parents information about how to restrain children properly and when and how to move to the next stage in their car seat journey.
