Automotive enthusiasts are a-twitter about a car accident that occurred on Skyline Boulevard in Palo Alto on Thursday afternoon, Dec. 28. The reason? It's believed to be the first accident on a public road involving a Tesla Cybertruck, which rolled off the assembly lines in late November four years after the concept was announced.
Car fans are discussing the incident on online boards like reddit, and a YouTube video from the dashcam of a passerby garnered nearly 175,000 views in 16 hours. In part, people are curious to know what kind of damage the Tesla, made of stainless steel, suffered.
• VIDEO: Watch a dashcam video of the accident scene taken by a passerby and posted on YouTube account of cjysqpb.
The California Highway Patrol (CHP) reported that it dispatched units at 2:05 p.m. on Thursday to a two-vehicle crash on Skyline, also known as State Route 35, south of Page Mill Road. There, they discovered a Toyota Corolla with a smashed-in front end in the bushes on one side of the road and, farther up, a Tesla Cybertruck halfway off the road, with its rear blocking one lane.
The Toyota Corolla was traveling south Skyline when the driver, for unknown reasons, turned to the right and subsequently struck a dirt embankment on the right shoulder, the CHP stated in a press release. The Toyota then re-entered the roadway, crossed over the double yellow lines into the northbound lane and crashed into a Tesla Cybertruck traveling north.
The Tesla driver complained of pain but declined medical transportation. There were two passengers in the Tesla, but neither they nor the 17-year-old Toyota driver reported any injuries, according to the CHP.
"It does not appear that the Tesla Cybertruck was being operated in autonomous mode," the CHP press release stated.
An investigation into this incident is ongoing. n
