(TargetDailyNews.com) – Texas police say the car accident that killed billionaire Angela Chao last month occurred because Chao was quite drunk when she backed her car into a pond and drowned on February 10th.
Chao was the sister of former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who is married to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell has recently announced that he will be stepping down from the leadership role this November.
The Blanco County Sheriff’s office released a report on the February incident, referring to it as an “unfortunate accident.” Angela Chao, who used to be CEO of Foremost Group, had joined several friends for a get-together on a large private property. According to the report, Chao, 50, was leaving an evening gathering and decided, instead of walking, to drive her Tesla across the property to the home where she was staying.
The sheriff’s report said Chao’s blood-alcohol content was three times the legal limit for drunk driving in Texas. She apparently tried to make a three-point turn when she backed her vehicle into a pond just about 20 minutes before midnight. Chao immediately called friends on her cell phone when she discovered her predicament.
Chao’s friend, Amber Keinan, told investigators that Chao called her and said she was trapped in her car in the pond. Chao continued to talk on the phone with her friend for a full eight minutes while her car continued to submerge in the water. The police report states that several of Chao’s friends tried to swim to the spot where her car was sinking, and Amber Keinan tried to reach her in a kayak. Chao told Keinan by phone that the water was closing in, that she expected to die, and that she loved Keinan.
It was not until 15 minutes after the accident that one of Chao’s friends called 911. Rescuers arrived and tried to get to Chao’s car, which was about 25 feet from the pond’s shoreline. Emergency personnel were eventually able to break the car’s window and grab Chao by the hand, but they could not remove her. When she was finally pulled from the submerged vehicle at 1:40 am, she was already dead.
The accident has prompted scrutiny of Tesla automobile design with a focus on the gearshift and the fact that the vehicle’s glass is described as unbreakable.
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