In sunny San Diego, a reckless Tesla driver is being charged with murder after a shocking road rage incident left a man twice his age dead.
According to the local NBC7 broadcaster, police say that a 22-year-old Tesla driver was going a whopping 126 miles per hour when he rammed a 53-year-old motorcyclist from behind on Interstate 805, causing the older man to fly 500 feet, land on the roadway, and ultimately die.
Prosecutors claim that the driver became enraged that the motorcyclist had been riding in the carpool lane — a loophole allowed by California’s highway laws — and intentionally sped up to hit him.
“The force that was used by the Tesla as it careened into the motorcycle was so great that the rear license plate of the motorcycle imprinted itself onto the Tesla front bumper,” one of the prosecutors in the case told NBC7.
As the Times of San Diego notes, the alleged murderer was driving a red Model Y during the incident, and also slammed into a BMW and a pickup truck, per California Highway Patrol. The six people in the pickup, which included four minors, were taken to the hospital, and as NBC7 notes, that part of the incident led to the driver picking up six assault charges alongside his first-degree murder charge and the single charge of hit-and-run resulting in a death.
After the pileup, the driver abandoned his Tesla and took off barefoot down the highway. According to Jennifer Kiti, a witness who filmed the angry Model Y driver, the man caused a scene even on foot.
“I think he was trying to get a ride, but people weren’t falling for it,” the mother told NBC7. “Then he started getting mad, like flipping people off.”
Once police finally caught up to the man, they surrounded him with guns drawn — but it still took a moment, the news broadcaster indicated, for him to finally stand down and allow himself to be taken into custody.
As prosecutors claim, the man essentially confessed to everything.
“This defendant told officers that he was speeding like the devil,” those unnamed prosecutors told NBC7, “that he broke every safety rule possible, and that he hit [the motorcyclist] on purpose.”
With so many Tesla tragedies being the result of faulty assisted driving technology, this deadly incident in San Diego is a good reminder that good old-fashioned road rage is still a major problem. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard about a Tesla driver becoming dangerously aggressive — and given how unhinged Americans act when they drive, it probably won’t be the last.
More on Tesla accidents: Tesla’s Self-Driving Mode Causes It to Get Hit by Train
