• Tesla Model 3 with six passengers crashed in Pasadena, CA, at over 100 mph killing three of those onboard, including the driver
  • EV flew 130 ft through the air after hitting a streetlight and striking a curb
  • Driver’s license was suspended at time of crash and he had an outstanding warrant related to a DUI

Three young people, including the driver, were killed on Saturday in California when a Tesla Model 3 struck a curb at 100 mph (160 km/h), sending it 130 ft (40 m) through air and into a power pole and a building.

The accident happened just after 02.30 on Sunday morning on Foothill Blvd, Pasadena, and police say it was fortunate that there weren’t even more casualties. Besides the three dead passengers in the white 2018 sedan, three more were seriously injured and were transported to hospital.

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Preliminary investigations revealed that the EV was travelling west with the digital speedo showing triple digits when it blew a red light at Sierra Madre Blvd, narrowly avoiding taking out a car heading north. Shortly after that, just before Vista Avenue, it clipped a curb, crashed through a streetlight and traveled almost half the length of a football field through the air where it collided with a power pole and then a vacant building.

Three of the four passengers in the back weren’t wearing seatbelts and were thrown out of the car in the smash, according to police reports. One of them was pronounced dead at the scene along with the front-seat passenger and the driver, whose license was suspended at the time of the accident.

Named by law enforcement as 22-year old Moheb Samuel, he also had a warrant out for his arrest as a result of failing to appear in court to answer charges of DUI dating to last August. It’s not yet known whether he’d been drinking before Saturday’s wreck, but police did confirm that there was evidence of alcohol being present in the car.

Fortunately, three of the passengers in the rear, a 20-year-old man, 18-year-old man and the 17-year-old sister of the driver, did survive.

Numerous video clips of the accident and the run-up to it show the Model 3 hurtling along at crazy speeds then sending sparks flying as it collides with the streetlight before being flung into the air and eventually crashing into the building.