Despite a spectacular crash in which the vehicle, a Tesla, was badly damaged, the four family members survived.
A driver suspected of intentionally jumping off a cliff with his family on board has been arrested after the family miraculously survived a fall from about 75 meters in northern California, police said on Wednesday, January 4 , with.
Dharmesh Arvind Patel, 41, was driving his vehicle with his wife and two children near San Francisco on Monday on a section of the famous “Highway 1” that borders the ocean when his car went off the road and hit the cliff fell down. Despite a spectacular fall that severely damaged the vehicle, a Tesla, the four family members survived and were evacuated to the hospital by helicopter, forced to intervene by rappelling rescuers.
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The driver was then arrested at Stanford Hospital, the California Highway Patrol told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. Dharmesh Arvind Patel, who practices as a doctor at a hospital near Los Angeles, will be remanded in custody once doctors confirm his release from the facility. According to initial findings, “investigators have probable grounds to believe that this incident was a deliberate act,” the highway patrol said in a press release.
Known for its many accidents
This section of Highway 1 is notorious for many accidents and it is extremely rare for victims to survive, authorities said. Rescue workers who were at the scene Monday initially expected to find bodies there, but noticed movement through the car’s broken windshield and launched a rescue operation involving several helicopters.
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“We were truly stunned to find surviving victims inside the vehicle,” said Brian Pottenger, commander of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The family’s two children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, sustained “moderate injuries,” he added. Whether the Tesla was on autopilot mode when it went off the road is not clear in the investigation, but “does not appear to be a contributing factor to this incident,” the police statement said.