In November last year, 27-year-old Casey Speckman and 44-year-old Kevin McCarthy were both killed when their Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in Indianapolis.
Fast forward to February 2017 and an accident report released by the Metropolitan Police Department has revealed that Speckman was well over the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash, with blood alcohol levels of 0.21 per cent. Despite this, Speckman’s father Jon has attributed some blame to the insane performance capabilities of the Tesla.
In an interview with Indy Star, Jon Speckman and his attorney revealed that just moments before the crash, Casey Speckman was forced to swerve out of the way of a driver travelling on the wrong side of the road.
“This is a vehicle that travels from 0 to 60 in 3.1 seconds. She’s clearly having to swerve to miss a vehicle going the wrong way on a one-way street. If her foot should happen to hit the accelerator, it’s like a rocket ship. I don’t know why they have to make a car that does that,” he said.
Authorities are still attempting to determine how fast the Tesla was traveling at the time of impact and in an emailed statement, the automaker said that it appeared to happen at high speed.
“We have been deeply saddened by this accident and have been working closely with authorities to facilitate their report. While it can be difficult to determine the precise speed of a vehicle in such a crash, the observed damage and debris field indicate a very high speed collision,” Tesla said.