Piedmont friend describes trying to save former classmates from deadly Cybertruck crash

PIEDMONT, Calif. - A young Piedmont man described to police how he tried unsuccessfully to save three of his friends, but was able to rescue a fourth, from a deadly Cybertruck crash the day before Thanksgiving.

First public account

The young man's account of trying to save two of his four friends was the first public, personal documentation of what happened on Nov. 27 in the 100 block of Hampton Road, and was revealed last week when his statement was submitted to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP concluded that speed, alcohol and drugs contributed to the deaths of Soren Dixon, 19, Krysta Tsukahara, 19, and 20-year-old Jack Nelson.

The young man was able to save Jordan Miller, 20, who was hospitalized. The extent of his injuries hasn't been made public. Miller is a business student at the University of Wisconsin.

None of the Piedmont families involved have wanted to speak to news organizations. And the young man's account was redacted, so his identity has not been made public. 

KTVU has learned the name of this young man through reporting but is choosing not to use it because he hasn't agreed to an interview. His account describes saving Miller and trying to save Tsukahara. KTVU cameras captured him hugging his parents shortly after the crash. 

All the young people who died graduated from Piedmont High in 2023, and most were college sophomores visiting their families for the Thanksgiving holiday. 

A toxicology report concluded all three of the young people who died had cocaine and alcohol in their systems. The driver, Dixon, also had methamphetamine in his system, the report shows.

Their deaths were ruled an accident because they were caused by asphyxia due to inhalation of smoke from the car, and thermal burns were a "significant" factor in their deaths, the autopsy report said.

The CHP report released on Friday did not address whether the Autopilot feature of the Cybertruck had been activated; a fuller report is expected to be released in July. 

Driver didn't seem drunk

The backstory:

In his statement provided through his attorney, the young man said that it didn't seem like Dixon was drunk or impaired when they decided to leave a small get-together and swing by his house to get a Cybertruck parked at Dixon's house at about 3 a.m. 

The young man, who had a young woman as his passenger, decided to follow.

They were all headed to Miller's house. 

Shortly after getting into their cars, Dixon pulled ahead, and the young man was following an Uber driver for a few blocks. 

When the young man turned a corner, he spotted the Cybertruck on fire, and it was wedged between a wall and a tree. He said he had no idea how fast Dixon had been driving.

"I instantly knew by the tail it was the Cybertruck," he wrote.

Breaking windows

Timeline:

He said he jumped out of his car, and ran around to Miller's side. 

The Cybertruck door was mangled, but he was able to slide his fingers into the crack. He pulled for a few seconds. But nothing budged. He then tried the windshield buttons on both Miller's door and Tsukahara's door. 

He didn't try the other side of the car, he said, because he knew the access was blocked. 

Cybertrucks, as well as all other electric vehicles, have manual options to release doors when the vehicle dies or shuts down, but often people don't know where they are. 

In a Cybertruck, the manual release for the door locks is a latch on the door in the front of the car by the window switches, and under a plastic well in the back "map pocket" of the car. 

"I attempted to punch the window to no avail," the young man wrote.

The young man knew he had to get Miller out because the Cybertruck had caught fire. 

The Piedmont police chief had already said the vehicle was engulfed in flames, and firefighters have said publicly that it could take up to 30,000 gallons of water to put out Cybertruck fires. 

However, in this case, Piedmont Fire Chief Dave Brannigan said the day after the crash that the speed in extinguishing the flames meant it was unlikely that the Cybertruck’s large lithium-ion battery had caught fire. He called the incident "more along the lines of a typical car fire."

He looked around and said he grabbed a tree branch, possibly five feet long.

"I used it to bash the window," he wrote. "It took 10-15 hits of the window to crack completely."

He said he was able to pop the window out of its frame.

Friend yelling for help

Meanwhile, he heard Tsukahara yelling for help. 

The Cybertruck's system was also sounding off: "Crash detected." 

The young man pushed an air bag aside and made his way to Miller, who was barely conscious.

Miller was still wearing his seatbelt. 

The young man said he screamed at Miller to take it off.

Eventually, Miller was able to unbuckle the belt and the young man said he pulled his friend out of the car window.

The young man's female passenger was also trying to help Miller out of the car, but he said he told her to get away from the burning vehicle and stay with Miller.

The young man went back to the car again.

This time to try to save Tsukahara, a sophomore at the Savannah College of Art and Design. 

She was sticking her head up from the back of the car.

The young man said he grabbed her arm and tried to pull her out. 

"But she retreated because of the fire," the young man wrote.

He grabbed another stick and tried to break the right rear window. He was able to pull it from its frame, but "once I got in, the fire had made its way throughout the entire car to the point where I couldn't even stand by the car." 

It was at this point that two police cars arrived, and he ran to them yelling "get your fire extinguishers." 

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