A doctor who deliberately drove his Tesla off a California cliff — injuring his two children, his wife and himself — was released from a hospital in stable condition Wednesday to face attempted murder and abuse, police said Children’s allegations.
Dharmesh Patel, 41, a radiologist in Pasadena, was arrested after he was rescued from his wrecked vehicle at the rocky bottom of Devil’s Slide, a notoriously dangerous cliff in the Pacific Ocean south of San Francisco .
Patel, his 41-year-old wife, his 7-year-old daughter and his 4-year-old son all survived the fall from the nearly 300-foot (91-meter) water’s edge.
Patel was taken to the hospital Monday with serious injuries, the California Highway Patrol said. Authorities plan to send him to the San Mateo County Jail in Redwood City upon his release.
It is unclear whether Patel has hired a lawyer.
Initial media reports following Monday’s crash suggested the Tesla may have been in full self-driving mode, but CHP has since said the driving mode did not appear to be a factor in the accident.
“Based on the evidence gathered, investigators have drawn probable grounds that the incident was deliberate,” the CHP said in a statement.
Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, the Los Angeles hospital where Patel works, said it was “deeply saddened” to learn of the incident.
“We are very thankful there were no serious injuries,” it said in a statement. “We will not be responding further as this incident is under investigation.”
Brian Pottenger, the battalion commander of the San Mateo-Santa Cruz unit, said the rescue took about three hours to complete.
Pottenger said the slightly injured children were the first to be rescued, before the helicopter lifted the seriously injured adults.
“The children were properly secured in the appropriate car seats, and the car seats were properly secured in the vehicle,” Pottenger said. “In our opinion, the car seat saved the lives of those two children.”
Rescuers received a call to a vehicle on the side of the road south of the Tom Lantos Tunnel in the San Francisco area just after 10 a.m. Monday.
He said the Tesla that Patel was driving was driving on a major portion of the road before it turned off the cliff.
“Over the years there have been incidents of vehicles going off the road in this area,” he said.