Man asleep in Tesla crashes into California cop car, injures 2
by Brad Matthews · The Washington TimesA man is accused of sleeping at the wheel of a Tesla and relying on its automated driver assistance, leading to a crash with a California Highway Patrol car that injured two officers.
In a video of the incident released on social media Thursday, the California Highway Patrol said that “despite its name, full self driving is not fully autonomous. Technology does not relieve drivers of their responsibility to safely operate their vehicles.”
The highway patrol did not name the Tesla driver or say whether he has been charged in connection to the incident, which took place Tuesday night on the eastbound lanes of U.S. Interstate 80 near Fairfield, 50 miles north of San Francisco.
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A group of four officers in three patrol cars initially responded to a fatal crash on I-80 at around 10:45 p.m. Tuesday. As the response continued an hour later, two of the officers sat in a Dodge Charger patrol vehicle when it was struck by the Tesla, the California Highway Patrol Solano Office said on social media.
Flares, cones and other agency vehicles were used to demarcate the closed-off areas of I-80 during the accident response, but the Tesla driver, a 22-year-old Sacramento man, plowed right through the flare and cone pattern. The two cops in the Charger were hospitalized with injuries and released Wednesday, the highway patrol said.
The Tesla driver suffered minor injuries, the police told San Francisco’s KRON-TV.
Payless Towing said on social media that one of its drivers was at the scene, posting a rearview camera video taken by the tow truck.
“In the midst of this frightening incident, our driver was just two feet away from the impact. … Please keep the two CHP officers in your thoughts and prayers as they recover. And please, slow down, stay alert, move over, and give emergency responders and tow truck operators room to work,” Payless Towing said.
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In the crash that the highway patrol was responding to, a 19-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area lost control of his Honda Civic and was struck by a Chevrolet Tahoe driven by a 47-year-old Sacramento man. The teen died at the hospital, and the highway patrol made no mention of any injuries to the other driver.
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