Witness who rescued teenager recounted details of fatal Piedmont Cybertruck crash to authorities
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A friend of the driver who crashed a Tesla Cybertruck in the early morning hours of Nov. 27 in Piedmont — killing himself and two teenaged passengers — gave police details of the events leading up to the fiery wreck and its aftermath, according to court documents.
Piedmont High School graduate Matt Riordan told authorities that after 3 a.m. that night, he followed his friend Soren Dixon, 19, who was driving his family's Tesla Cybertruck, along Hampton Avenue. Dixon accelerated out of a stop sign at Sea View Avenue and out of view, and Riordan said he subsequently came upon the Cybertruck wedged between a tree and a retaining wall.
Riordan rushed to the vehicle as flames rose from the front, in an attempt to rescue Dixon, Krysta Tsukahara, 19; Jack Nelson, 20; and Jordan Miller, 19. He grabbed a tree branch nearby and broke the front passenger door window to pull a "barely conscious" Miller out of the vehicle toward safety, Alameda County court documents state.
"I could hear Krysta yelling and the car saying 'crash detected,'" Riordan told authorities, according to court documents. "I went back to the broken window and yelled for them to try to get out at this window… Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head (out) from the back, I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire."
Dixon, Tsukahara and Nelson died in the crash.
In California Highway Patrol documents obtained by Bay Area News Group, authorities lay out a timeline of the night's devastating events, alleging underage alcohol consumption, drug use and a joyride that ended in tragedy.
On the evening of Nov. 26, approximately eight to nine Piedmont High School graduates gathered at 183 Indian Road, the home of Damian Manolis, where Dixon was drinking alcohol, according to court documents. Manolis did not respond to numerous inquiries by Bay Area News Group, and hung up when reached by phone after a reporter asked about the gathering.
"Soren (Dixon) did not seem drunk at the time, his speech was normal and so was his walking," Riordan told authorities. "Soren pleaded with me to get the Cybertruck."
An unidentified witness alleged in the CHP report that Dixon had approximately eight alcoholic beverages ranging from beer to vodka. The Alameda County Coroner's Office confirmed Dixon's level of intoxication as 0.195% – more than twice the legal limit and well above the legal limit for his age – in addition to the presence of 180 nanograms of cocaine and 55 nanograms of methamphetamine per milliliter of blood at the time of the crash, according to the autopsy report.
Dixon, Tsukahara, Nelson, Miller, Riordan and one other witness left the get-together to go to Dixon's home at 6861 Estates Dr. to pick up the Cybertruck. After doing so, the group separated and headed toward Miller's home at 3 Wildwood Gardens in a bucolic neighborhood of Piedmont, according to authorities.
As he neared Miller's home, Dixon failed to adjust the Cybertruck's speed as it accelerated straight forward on the curved road of Hampton Ave, the CHP report said. The conclusion of CHP's investigation stated that Soren's drug impairment and the unsafe speed he was driving at caused the vehicle to veer off the road.
The group was just two blocks away from their destination.
In Miller’s attempt to rescue his friends from the vehicle, he found the doors would not open, saying he "pulled for a few seconds, but nothing budged at all… I then tried the button on the windshield of Jordan's door, then Krsyta's door" to no avail, according to authorities.
Miller described striking the windows with his fists, then swinging a 4-to-5-foot-long branch 10-15 times at the Cybertruck's passenger window before it cracked and he could pull the window out of its frame, according to the authorities.
On Dec. 4, Oakland CHP officer Jacob Nedelcu filed documents seeking to review the charred remnants of the Cybertruck, which had been transported to Oliver's Tow Yard in Richmond, according to court documents. Using Riordan's timeline of events, Nedelcu stated there was "reasonable cause" to review the Tesla for evidence of felonies, including alleged driving under the influence resulting in death and vehicular manslaughter, according to the court documents.
He visited the tow yard on Dec. 9, where he found two charred cellphones and had a Tesla engineer perform a scan of the vehicle for additional information, including event recorder data from the vehicle, a restraint control module, a powertrain control module, an airbag control module and airbag control unit, and an engine control unit, in addition to other information systems, according to court documents.
A special investigative unit of CHP is still reviewing the incident, in addition to a separate inquiry by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
