The Wall Street Journal analyzes the death of Angela Chao, CEO of her family’s growing global shipping business and owner of a Tesla Model X SUV electric vehicle, on the day of the Chinese New Year.
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Chao, 50, had invited seven friends from her days at Harvard Business School to spend the Feb. 9 holiday weekend at her ranch in Austin, Texas. Around 11:30 p.m. on Friday night, the day her guests arrived, Chao attempted to move around the ranch, driving a relatively short distance in her car as the night was very cold and dark, with no moon.
Within minutes of saying goodbye, she called a friend in a panic. She had accidentally put her car in reverse, causing it to be thrown backwards, rolling down an embankment and into a lake. It was sinking fast. Could they help her?
Over the next few hours, her friends, then the ranch manager and his wife, and then paramedics, firefighters, and sheriff’s deputies tried to break windows, find an escape hatch, or any other way to get her out. Bye from the car.
The futile rescue efforts
A driver has about a minute to get out of a submerged car. When vehicles had a crank window, the driver could roll down the window to get out, although this required a clarity of mind often lacking in an emergency. In newer cars, such as the Tesla Model X vehicle, the driver may have a few seconds to press the button to roll down the window before the water level gets too high. After that, the only way out would be to break it, say auto safety experts.
This is terribly difficult underwater, and can be even more difficult when trying to penetrate tough multi-layered glass used by most automakers, including Tesla. Laminated glass is praised for its safety properties, such as preventing the driver from being ejected during a crash. However, it is almost impossible to break under water, according to tests done by the American Automobile Association.
Each year, about 400 people die in vehicle crashes in North America, according to researchers who have studied these incidents. And there are no construction requirements to protect occupants in submerged vehicles, according to federal safety regulators.
Who was Angela Chao?
Although she was one of the most powerful women in the world, Angela Chao was little known outside of the shipping world. She was the youngest of six sisters, four of whom, including herself, attended Harvard Business School. Chao studied economics at Harvard, graduating with honors in just three years. The school’s Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center for Executive Education is named after her late mother, who, along with her 96-year-old father, James SC Chao, co-founded the shipping company Foremost Group, which carries more than 20 million tons of dry products per year for companies such as Bunge and Cargill.
Chao’s older sister, Elaine, was US Secretary of Labor in the Bush administration and US Secretary of Transportation in the Trump administration. The closely held New York-based Chao family business is valued at $1.3 billion.
However, none of that mattered anymore as her car sank. Local officials trying to rescue her did not know who she was. All they knew was that it was dark and the water was black and cold. They couldn’t even be sure that the sunken structure they were standing on was her metallic dark blue Model X.
The last few minutes
After Chao made the pleading phone call, her friends went outside. One jumped into the lake. In the commotion, the estate manager came out with his wife. 100 was called. An emergency unit for Blanco County, where Johnson City is located, arrived there at 12:28 a.m., about 24 minutes after the call, according to the fire department’s incident report. The terrain and accessibility were such that some first responders decided to get out of their vehicles and walk to the exact location.
At one point a crane arrived but did not have a cable long enough to reach the vehicle. At least one tow truck driver, who was not used to towing an electric vehicle out of water, was afraid of being electrocuted, a person at the scene said. However, an electric vehicle submerged in water is designed so that it is not a risk of electric shock because the high voltage battery is isolated from the car frame.
When the car was towed out of the water, the doors of the vehicle opened and a huge amount of water came out from inside. Chao was unresponsive. She was removed from the vehicle and attempts were made to revive her, but to no avail. He died on the spot and was not taken to a hospital.
Danger – death vehicles in the water
No one in the family blames Tesla for the 50-year-old woman’s death. Her family members even say they love Teslas and admire how good electric vehicles are doing for the planet.
The WSJ notes that in 2016 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rejected an application requiring automakers to equip every vehicle with a window breaker, saying the effectiveness of such a tool is not known.
Many drivers mistakenly believe they should try to open their door if their car is submerged in water, said Gordon Giesbrecht, a senior scientist at the University of Manitoba who studies vehicle drowning deaths. However, he says, because of the water pressure, it would be nearly impossible to open a submerged car door.