Indian-origin doctor purposely drove family off cliff in Tesla, 'he’s depressed', says wife

Dharmesh Patel is a radiologst in Pasadena, California. Image credit:Facebook)

Dharmesh Patel, the Indian-American doctor who was with his family inside a Tesla car that plunged off a 250-foot cliff in California in January, blamed the vehicle for allegedly malfunctioning, while his wife said he drove the car off the cliff on purpose. He and his family, including a four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, miraculously survived the fall off Devil’s Slide, a dangerous and rocky area known for its fatal car wrecks.

Patel, 41, told investigators that while the Indian-origin family was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway, the sensor in his white Tesla Model Y indicated that the tyre pressure was low, New York Post reported, quoting documents. The car, he claimed, fell off the ocean-facing cliff when he tried to stop the car and check the tyres.

His wife, Neha, however, refuted this claim and said Dharmesh Patel was suffering from depression and drove off the cliff intentionally.

“He drove off. He’s depressed. He’s a doctor. He said he was going to drive off the cliff. He purposely drove off,” Neha Patel told the police on the day of the incident while she was being flown in a helicopter after being rescued from the crash site, San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The wife, while being pulled out from the car, told a rescue worker “something to the effect that the driver, her husband Dharmesh Patel, did it on purpose,” the newspaper quoted police officer Aaron Sapien as writing in an affidavit.

“She then told him that her husband needs a psych evaluation. She said that suspect Patel drove them off and repeated this multiple times,” the officer reportedly wrote, adding that another rescue worker heard her say that Patel drove off the cliff on purpose and “tried to kill everyone”.

While Dharmesh Patel had serious lower body injuries and was hospitalised for weeks, his wife and daughter too received serious injuries. The couple’s son suffered minor injuries. In February, the radiologist, who was arrested while he was in hospital, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and causing grave injuries to his family.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk had responded to news reports about the Patel family’s miraculous escape, calling it “good news” in a tweet.