Indian-American family escapes after driving a Tesla down a cliff

In a rather fortunate yet unfortunate incident, an Indian-American family in California managed to live after driving their Tesla down a 250-foot cliff. According to the media reports the location where the accident occurred is known as Devil’s Slide, and not many people have recovered with their lives intact after falling from that cliff. The unfortunate part of this incident was that this was not an accident, rather it was an attempt at murder.

It was reported by the investigating authorities that the man Dharmesh Patel who is a 41-year-old resident along with his wife and two children aged four and seven was traveling in his Tesla Model Y when he deliberately tried to kill himself and his entire family. According to media sources, the family’s Tesla Model Y reportedly overturned many times before coming to rest on its wheels along Devil’s Slide, a rocky and steep terrain. Following this, the witnesses at the location of the incident dialed 911, the country’s emergency number.

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Furthermore the authorities claimed that it was a risky operation for rescuers to rappel down the rock to save Patel and his family following the incident. When the rescuers got to the vehicle, all four people were awake and cognizant. Firefighters used a rappelling technique to down the sheer ledge and save the two kids. The kids were able to go away somewhat unscathed however both the adults had to airlifted to the nearest hospital. It is “very, very unusual,” according to incident commander Brian Pottenger of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, for someone to survive such a fall. According to Pottenger, the kids’ car seats might have saved their lives.

Following the news, a Twitter account by the name of Drive Tesla shared a tweet saying,”UPDATE: Initial media reports were incorrect. The two adults suffered non life-threatening injuries, and the two children were UNHARMED…after their Model Y fell 250ft down a steep cliff. If you want to keep your family safe, buy a @Tesla @elonmusk” to which the Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk replied, “Good news,”.

The car that the family was saved in was a Tesla Model Y and it was reportedly seen testing in India at the time when Tesla Inc. was planning to enter the country. Tesla had appointed few key individuals in India before its official entry however it was reported that a few of them have left the company meanwhile some of them have been relocated to other countries where they have been directed to work for Middle Eastern and larger Asia-Pacific (APAC) markets.

Tesla Inc. boss Elon Musk wanted the Indian government to reduce the hefty import duties on EVs since 2019, although the government of India has been adamant about doing so. The union minister of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways of India, Nitin Gadkari had previously shared a message for the Tesla supremo that if his company can produce electric vehicles in India then there is ‘no problem’, but it must not import automobiles from China to sell in the nation. The minister during an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue stated that India is a massive market with a lot of potential for all-electric vehicles.

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