Angela Chao died last month after backing her Tesla into a pond on a Texas ranch connected to a corporation linked to her husband, billionaire venture capitalist Jim Breyer. Initially reported as an accident, authorities launched an investigation last week, describing the scene as atypical in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
The Blanco County Sheriff's Office reported that first responders attempted to revive Chao for more than 40 minutes, but she had “succumbed from being under the water.”
Chao left her friends, seven of her closest girlfriends from Harvard Business School, at a guesthouse at around 11:30 p.m. to drive to the ranch's main house where her 3-year-old son was sleeping but accidentally put the car in reverse instead of drive. She frantically called her friends to let them know her car was sinking. They tried to save her and called 911, with the first emergency units arriving at 12:28 a.m. – nearly 30 minutes later. Arriving police officers struggled to break the vehicle's windows. Eventually, a tow truck pulled the submerged Tesla from the pond. (RELATED: Electric Vehicle Owners Receive Lethal Warning Following Hurricane)
The Wall Street Journal has the most comprehensive account so far of Chao's final moments, based on interviews from law enforcement sources and those who were there:
Within minutes of saying her goodbyes, she called one of her friends in a panic. While making a three-point turn, she had put the car in reverse instead of drive, she said. It is a mistake she had made before with the Tesla gearshift. The car had zipped backward, tipping over an embankment and into a pond. It was sinking fast. Could they help her?
Over the next several hours, her friends, then the ranch manager and his wife, and then paramedics, and firefighters and sheriff's deputies rushed around and tried to break the windows, find an escape hatch or any way to get Chao out of the car. Somehow an executive who made her living on the sea was drowning in a stock pond within sight of her home.
Halfway around the world, it was midmorning on Sunday. Jim Breyer was in Dubai on the way to a conference center for the United Arab Emirates World Government Summit, where he would be speaking on a panel about artificial intelligence and medicine, his latest professional passion. He was in a car with a colleague when the phone rang. It was one of his wife's girlfriends. There had been a tragic accident, she said.
In the background, Breyer could hear the buzz of activity. His wife's friend said there were deputies, paramedics and firefighters trying to revive Chao, but her car had been underwater for a long time. Breyer heard someone ask to speak with him, the voice on the other end of his wife's friend's phone.
A man who identified himself as an EMT asked who he was speaking to and what their relationship was with the deceased: “It's Jim Breyer,” he responded. “I'm her husband.”
In modern vehicles, such as Chao's Tesla, the driver may have only a few seconds to press the button to roll down the window before the water level goes too high. Once that happens, breaking the window is the only means of escape, which is incredibly difficult underwater.
Research shows that, under the best circumstances, drivers have only one minute to escape a car filling with water.
Chao, who was only 50 years old, served as the CEO of Foremost Group, a New York-based bulk shipping company. She was the sister of former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and the sister-in-law of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. (RELATED: GOP Leader Reveals Decision After McConnell's Shocking Move)
Although she was one of the most powerful women in the world she remained relatively unknown outside of the shipping industry.
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