Angela Chao, the shipping company CEO and sister-in-law of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was intoxicated when she drove her Tesla into a lake at a Texas ranch in a fatal crash last month, according to the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office.
That's right CEOs please get behind the wheel drunk and back your Tesla into a retaining pond.
Honestly, i wasn't expecting otherwise. My experience with people who can afford a good lawyer is that they already care a lot less about DUIs, and i doubt this gets any better when you can just hire somebody to drive you if your license gets revoked.
I've heard night mare stories about the Walton's and DUIs. Seems the only way a cop can get fired and never rehired is if they pull over an American noble.
A video of the exterior of the south side camera captures Chao at 11:37 p.m. walking “unsteadily to her vehicle while continuing to hold her cellular phone in her right hand,” according to the report.
Chao is later seen entering her Tesla. The report stated that the camera then captured the car lurching toward a wooden barrier, reversing, turning to the left without stopping, and over the top of the limestone block wall. Afterward, the vehicle entered the water. A minute later, the vehicle’s lights were no longer visible.
Also lmao why didn't she just WALK?? she had to drive?? she was on her property!! she could've just left the car and walked the like quarter of a mile!! I'm assuming her 'ranch' is huge as shit and the guest house is far away but still.....I would've just walked
Chao married Bruce Wasserstein in January 2009, just months before his death in October of that year. She married Jim Breyer in 2012.
Also - as her car was sinking - she was on the phone to her friend for eight minutes.
Death
On the evening of February 10, 2024, Chao was celebrating the Lunar New Year with friends at her Johnson City ranch. As her guests began going home, she got into her Tesla Model X and accidentally backed into a pond. The car began sinking. Unable to open her door or to break the glass, the car filled with water. Chao was on the phone for eight minutes as the car sank, from around 11:42 to 11:50 p.m., telling her friend she was going to die. Onlookers called 911 and attempted to help.
Blanco County emergency personnel arrived around midnight and tried to enter the car. A deputy broke the driver’s door window and went underwater where he found Chao and dragged her to shore. EMS workers were unable to revive her, and she was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. on February 11; she was 50 years old. A March 2024 police investigation concluded that Chao's blood alcohol level was three times above the legal limit, and that her death was the result of an accident.
my first thought when I originally read the story was that she was probably hammered. "out with friends" or whatever--- intended to humanize her but we all know what that means.
the other thing I don't understand is why there was apparently a pond next to a driveway or something. hindsight's 20/20 but shouldn't you put some kind of barrier between the driving area and the water?
With the quick acceleration of those things, idk if an aesthetically pleasing barrier would’ve made any difference. She probably did an “unintended acceleration” i.e. brake misapplication
For most cars the windows will work for 30-60 seconds after being in the water. The doors will not open due to the water pressure from the outside.
If you should ever find yourself in a car in the water:
Seatbelt off
Window open
Kids out
You out
Don't bother with the window braking thingy unless absolutely necessary. They will not work on laminated windows, which are more common for side windows in modern cars.
addendum: if you have doors that you can open via a handle on the inside, so non-tesla doors basically, you will be able to open the door once the car is sufficiently submerged, as inside and outside pressure will be equalized. Anyone in a Tesla is fucked though because those doors open electronically via button cuz that's cool. As far as I know at least, I will never enter one of those death machines.