>Two of the three counts against Patel come with domestic violence and great bodily injury enhancements, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said during a news conference Monday.

>...

>“Miraculously though, the four-year-old came out with just some bruises, and that does not qualify for significant bodily injury,”

Good for the kid and somehow also the would-be family killer.

This sounds like the beginning of a thriller movie.

I think I heard about this guy on a podcast recently. He was driving a Tesla and expected it to explode like a gas powered car. Instead it just got stuck on some trees. I could be wrong.

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You aren’t supposed to listen to the call of the void.

Thankfully the family is okay.

The mom is still in the hospital. She's expected to recover. But they're all alive.

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No, we don't all think about trying to kill our families

Probably immediately followed up with divorce papers

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You mean the end, the END of a thriller movie.

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I don't know about you, but I never think about killing my family.

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At least don't drag other people into the void with you.

Thriller movies often open dramatically on the ending scene then recount what happened before that opening scene.

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Seems reasonable after attempted murder.

While most folks probably do experience that, most aren't family annihilators.

He went off a giant cliff, but Teslas are bottom heavy and have a strong roof structure and many airbags. I doubt he was thinking about an explosion.

I don't think he's said what he was thinking or given any kind of explaination. Just his kid and wife said it was intentional, and the onboard cameras support that.

Also, in the video it looks like they went into a bunch of rocks. Really crazy they survived.

Cars rarely explode from impacts. Can they yes. But it’s still rare

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Right, but a lot of people believe what they see in the movies. A leaf lands on a car, and it explodes like Hiroshima.

Now that we know the driver did it intentionally and the safety of the car kept them alive, it's interesting that the brand of car isn't making it into headlines anymore.

Oh, it is. Just yesterday, there was an article about a brand new one that had the steering wheel fall off.

Devil's slide, San Mateo county California drove off cliff into ocean!

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...what about the front of it? Did it fall off?

The wifes testimoney will be most interesting

One of my first childhood memories is my dad yelling at my mom in the car and threatening to kill us all as we drove to the kindergarten orientation for my older sister.

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What's that one movie where the car gets lightly tapped by another car and explodes? I remember seeing that scene as a kid but I can't remember a thing about the rest of the movie.

Depends on who's driving the car. If it's the protagonist then they're built like tanks.

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Top Secret maybe?

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Boy, that is crazy they survived that. Awkward for the father. I wonder what went through his mind when he realized everyone, including himself, were still alive?

Also that one that spontaneously combusted

Really? I think he deserves a second chance

edit: /s

I hate Elon and shitty Tesla quality as much as the next person on Reddit, but it's "odd" to me that there was a couple headlines like "Driver in Tesla Road Rage Incident Arrested" and "Tesla Spontaneously Combusted used 6k gallons of water to put fire out" but not one about "Tesla Driver who drove family off cliff is charged with attempted murder"

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Radiologist, living in a fancy suburb and driving a Tesla, two young kids, neighbors say they were a "beautiful, idyllic family, no indication of issues", wife apparently had no clue as well...and then he randomly decides to drive his family off a cliff. You can never really know WTF is going on in a person's head. Hope everyone (especially the kids) can get all the help they need to recover and move on.

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It was outside the environment.

To steal another Redditor's comment: "So, what's for lunch?"

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Potentially began with divorce papers. The most dangerous time at the hands of an abusive partner is when you’re trying to leave. A non-abusive partner doesnt drive his family off a cliff and try to kill them.

They have done that gag in a lot of "spoof" movies. I seem to remember something like that from one of the Naked Gun films.

Nah, you gotta be driving down a highway at normal speeds for it to suddenly combust like that

I hope he learned his lesson.

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He's going to have a lot of free time to think about it.

Also nevermind the Tesla that managed to fall off a cliff, not explode, and not get anyone killed, whoever made that kid's carseat needs to be pushing this for the rest of the year.

No it's not. Half the articles after the initial one didn't say Tesla anymore, we all knew which story they meant when they talked about the man who drove his family over a cliff in cali and they all survived. Find a hobby, dude.

That's a tough row to hoe.

On the one hand you can point to that incident for the car seat effectiveness. On the other, it's shown that your car seat was picked out by a would-be family killer.

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Picks car with highest safety rating 👁️👄👁️

Your comment reminded me of those relationship posts where the OP is like “my guy is so amazing expect for this teeny tiny thing,” where the “one thing” ends up being a fondness for cruel and/or illegal things.

People like to pretend like these decisions don't live in a vacuum. The conditions were right for this man to listen to the void, but it's possible the decision was made in a vacuous moment when he was weak, or compromised somehow.

Don't get me wrong, fuck this guy. It's just that we've all felt the call before and it's not that hard to imagine someone being compromised to the point of answering.

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Not a stretch

I used to be with a guy that was a talented sous chef. Looked like a young Vin Diesel, amazing in bed, and passionate. However, the guy was crazy. Like, "I might wear you skin just to be close to you" crazy. Was with him for a few years before I had to make the decision to leave him. There was a part of me that said, "your mental health, or death? You need to decide".

Or when the 'one thing' was addressed, but it turns out there where actually a lot of other things the 'tiny thing' was blocking.

Huh? Nobody should blame a car seat manufacturer because a psychopath chose to buy it once.

Nobody’s like “don’t buy Cheerios, Jeffrey Dahmer loved them!”

I’m never buying cheerios again.

Route 1. I drove that once. Set off my fear of height all the time. PCR was developed in the inventor’s head on the same highway.

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Wow, I didn't know that part of history concerning polymerase chain reactions. DNA testing wouldn't be the same had the inventor not driven on that road .

We've all had intrusive thoughts. Most come to their senses before actually going through with them.

Couple things, he’s a radiologist in California so she and kids will be set for life and there’s a job opening for radiologist in California

Medicine is a high stress job and environment, suicide and mental health issues are higher than national averages. The money is great but the mental price tends to be high. Not justifying anything but I guess I’d more more surprised if a construction worker or something did it.

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I think the opposite of the void. Ride on two wheels a lot and the random thought pops in my head every once in a blue moon, Man its really really easy to become road paste. This ride is no longer fun I am now going to go home.

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When this first story came out I imagined new elements forged from the heat and intense pressure inside this guy’s chest realizing OH NO WE LIVED and knowing how screwed he was. Like Ohshitnium

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Well, certainly not his asshole even though he landed hard enough for it. And, it would have provided a bit of schadenfreude for the rest of us.

Construction workers actually have massively outsized rates of suicide, way higher than most jobs. Their harsh and unsupportive work culture leads to a lot of repressed mental health issues.

I do understand the point you’re getting at though

What the hell? I hope you got away from that ass?!?

I picked a blue collar job since most feel more fulfilled than white collar but of course I chose poorly

My parents divorced 10 years later. I’m an old man now so he’s probably dead by now.

Also thank you to everyone that sympathized. It’s not something I think about, but this article reminded me of it.

Huh. I always thought the expression always a tough ROAD to hoe. TIL

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This doesn't sound like intrusive thoughts. This sounds like psychopathy.

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Which was likely staged.

While he was on LSD no less

Imagine being such a miserable failure that you try to kill your family only to learn you can’t even do that right. What a fucking loser.

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Dahmer was a candy man, you should be okay.

Ah the "Hitler was a vegetarian" argument.

We're busy hating Elon and while safe, Teslas have poor QC and fit & finish.

I always think of this bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=126&v=3Sbw0lZ9LmY

I sorta wonder if not being able to ignore some calls of the void is a type of mental illness.

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Yeah I bet big oil can’t believe that Reddit is happily spreading its propaganda

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“I know he loves me.”

Neighbors only see from the outside. He could be having a tinder account on his phone wife discovered it or something. You never know with people

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Set for life? Becoming a single mom of 2 with the primary breadwinner now locked up for trying to kill you all is not "set for life". I have no idea how this works but if she wants it all I'd guess she'd have to sue him for it after whatever she receives from the divorce.

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I’m really confused because I remember them initially saying it was the mother? Now it’s the father?

Maybe he got a brain tumor, and maybe from he got it from his job. Would explain his erratic behavior

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