A 67-year-old man from Hawaii who was involved in a chaotic and deadly crash in San Francisco earlier this year while driving a Tesla that he claimed accelerated on its own is now facing a slew of serious charges, according to multiple media reports.
The Jan. 19 crash occurred as Jia Lin Zheng came tearing off the Interstate 280 off-ramp to 6th Street in a Tesla Model Y, sideswiping three cars and picking up speed as he ran red lights at nearly 90 miles per hour toward downtown, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In a police report, witnesses described the Tesla as a “black blur” and Zheng as a “madman.”
At 6th and Harrison streets, the then 66-year-old crashed into a Lexus at a stoplight and spun into oncoming traffic where he struck a vehicle carrying Mikhael Romanenko, 27, his girlfriend and her dog, Keeper.
The 27-year-old’s car was thrust into an unoccupied Waymo, killing Romanenko almost instantly. Keeper was killed in the wreck as well.
In the frenzy, seven people in six separate vehicles involved in the crash were injured.
Zheng, who did not have alcohol in his system at the time nor was there any evidence that he suffered a medical episode, was also injured. While he was being treated for his injuries, he told police that the Tesla had malfunctioned and sped up on its own.
He was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter but released while prosecutors decided whether he should be charged, a decision that infuriated Julia Romanenko, the victim’s mother, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Zheng in May, The Chronicle reported.
In Hawaii, where Zheng returned to, records show he has been cited five times for speeding, as well as for allegedly running a red light and disobeying traffic signals.
A little more than eight months after the deadly crash, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins on Monday announced charges of felony vehicular manslaughter, felony reckless driving and three misdemeanor hit-and-run charges against the 67-year-old.
“These cases take a tremendous amount of resources to investigate on the front end,” Jenkins told CBS News. “We have to do vehicle inspections, we have to do physical examinations of the drivers to ensure that there were no health episodes that caused it, that there was no vehicle malfunction, and interview a whole host of witnesses and experts who can help us recreate the traffic collision and ensure that we do have a driver that is responsible and not that there was some other cause of this crash.”
Zheng was booked into San Francisco County Jail on Sept. 21 and is expected to appear in court on Tuesday.
He has not yet entered a plea.
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