The wife of the driver authorities say intentionally threw the Tesla car her family was traveling in off a cliff in California told paramedics her husband did it on purpose, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
Dharmesh A. Patel, 41, was charged Monday with attempted murder after prosecutors said they had found sufficient evidence that he purposely overturned the car from a height of more than 250 feet.
"She made it very clear that it was not an accident. We believe the evidence shows that there was intent to kill," Wagstaffe said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
A Tesla car at the bottom of a cliff after falling off a freeway in San Mateo, Calif., on Jan. 1, 2023.Sgt.
Brian Moore/AP
According to the prosecutor, the woman was "screaming" in despair when paramedics arrived to tell them that she had done it "on purpose", although she declined to quote her words.
Medical services had to rappel down the cliff to reach the car at the bottom.
Both Patel and his wife, 41, and their two young children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, sustained significant injuries and had to be hospitalized, authorities said.
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Patel is also charged with inflicting grievous injury and domestic abuse in connection with the January 2 crash on a Northern California highway.
The Associated Press news agency did not get a response from Patel's attorney, Josh Bentley, for a request for comment.
Patel was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, but Bentley asked for a delay until February 9, which the judge granted.
The judge also granted the prosecution's request not to post bail and ordered Patel to stay away from his family.
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The defendant, who works as a radiologist at a southern California hospital, was sent to jail Friday after leaving the hospital where he was admitted for the accident.
Rescuers claimed the family had miraculously survived the brutal fall.
To get them out of the completely crushed Tesla Model Y car, firefighters had to cut it out with power saws.
Patel was arrested at the hospital shortly after the accident, after the California Highway Patrol found there were reasonable grounds "to believe that this incident was an intentional act," according to the agency.
Wagstaffe explained that he is still trying to determine why Patel jumped off the cliff with his family, although the man has not spoken to detectives since the day of the incident.
“We are investigating why he did this.
Was there depression or something else?" Wagstaffe wondered.
"He was not only trying to kill them, he was also trying to kill himself."
