A driver died in a fiery high-speed crash Monday evening in Fremont that caused a structure fire at an apartment building.
The crash happened around 7 pm Monday, as KTVU reports, and a male driver crashed his Tesla into the first floor of an apartment building on Warm Springs Boulevard between South Grimmer Boulevard and Tavis Place, sparking a fire. The driver did not survive the crash and subsequent fire.
As KRON4 explains, the car appeared to have left the roadway and collided with the building. All lanes of Warm Springs Boulevard were subsequently closed for several hours.
The deceased has been identified as 46-year-old Kamleshkumar Patel of Fremont.
The building that the Tesla crashed into appears to be relatively new, and the office/retail space on the ground floor, where the crash occurred, was vacant and there were 'For Lease' signs on its windows.
As KRON4 reports, the fire was extinguished within 20 minutes, and while residents upstairs from the crash were briefly evacuated, they were allowed to return to their homes Monday night.
A resident of the building, Tom Vo, tells ABC 7 that the entire building shook when the car hit it, and he evacuated with his cat when the fire alarm went off.
"My window is wide open, I heard this loud screech right before that I basically like — that person or whoever was happening they were hitting the object before they went into that building, and pretty much I heard a loud explosion, I literally thought it was a bomb," Vo tells ABC 7.
It's not clear what caused the car to go off the road, and because a Tesla was involved, the NTSB is likely to get involved and investigate whether Auto Pilot mode was engaged at the time.
One nearby resident who may have been a witness claimed on X that the vehicle was "going like 100 miles per hour" at the time of the crash. Authorities have not confirmed how fast the car was traveling, but ABC 7 also spoke to a witness who said the car could have been going 100 miles per hour.
This Tesla was going like a 100 miles an hour and crashes into this apartment building by the Flame of Inspiration in Fremont. Oh the irony. Another flaming Tesla. Shocking. pic.twitter.com/E4w1gy7Yba
— lambanmartyr (@iRamona) October 15, 2024