The police say that Dharmesh A. Patel, who is 41 years old, crashed a Tesla that was carrying his wife and two children on purpose. Court records show that he was charged with three counts of attempted murder on Monday.
Court records show that a man was charged with three counts of attempted murder on Monday for allegedly driving his family off a cliff in Northern California this month.
The man, Dharmesh A. Patel, 41, was arrested after the crash on suspicion of attempted murder and child abuse. He and his wife and two children were in the Tesla when it went over a dangerous cliff and fell more than 250 feet.
After being pulled from the rubble by rescue workers, all four people were lucky enough to have injuries that weren’t life-threatening. But as details from witnesses and evidence found at the crash site came out, the authorities said it was clear that the crash had not been an accident. They said Mr. Patel had deliberately driven the car off the rocky bluff and would be taken to San Mateo County Jail after he got out of the hospital.
A spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Court said that Mr. Patel would be charged with attempted murder and given a court date on Monday. State court records show that he is also accused of hurting his wife and 7-year-old daughter very badly and of being violent toward them.
On Monday, it took a while to get in touch with Mr. Patel’s lawyer.
On January 2, when Mr. Patel, his wife, and their two children were taken out of their wrecked white Tesla, emergency workers were shocked to see that the whole family was still alive.
Authorities said at the time that the car had gone off Highway 1 about 20 miles southwest of San Francisco and crashed into rocks near the Pacific Ocean. The name “Devil’s Slide” is often used to describe this area. The car landed upright on its wheels, which made it easier to reach the people inside through the side windows, the police said.
They said it was very rare for anyone to survive a crash of that size.
