The three California teens killed in a fiery Tesla Cybertruck crash on Thanksgiving eve were identified Friday as Bay Area college students and longtime friends — as police probed whether speeding played a role in the gut-wrenching accident, authorities said.
Jack Nelson, Soren Dixon, and Krysta Tsukahara — 19-year-old college sophomores who met in high school — were heading home from an event in Piedmont at 3 a.m. Wednesday when the SUV jumped a curb, slammed into a tree and burst into flames, according to CBS San Francisco.
A fourth friend, Jordan Miller — a 20-year-old University of Wisconsin sophomore — survived the crash but suffered serious burns, his mother, Samantha Miller, told the station.
He was undergoing surgery Friday morning.
“It’s a devastating situation. And you know, we’re all thinking about the kids that were lost,” Miller said.
Nelson and Dixon played on the Piedmont High School lacrosse team and Nelson also played junior varsity football and varsity soccer.
Dixon went on to play lacrosse at the University of Southern California while Nelson attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where he joined the Sigma Nu fraternity.
It wasn’t immediately clear what university Tsukahara went to.
Cops on Friday were probing speeding as a possible cause of the wreck, which did not involve any other vehicles, according to police.
The futuristic-looking electric ride jumped a curb, struck a cement wall and got stuck between the wall and a tree, Piedmont Police Capt. Chris Monahan told the Chronicle.
When cops arrived at the scene, the SUV was engulfed in a blaze twice as high as the vehicle.
California Highway Patrol officials seized the Cybertruck and plan to look for any signs of mechanical failure.
Tesla issued a slate of recalls for 2024 Cybertruck models this year.
Last month, the Elon Musk-owned automaker said it would recall more than 27,000 of the vehicles over delayed rear-view camera images that could impair driver visibility and increase crash risks.
It also voluntarily recalled thousands of Cybertrucks in April due to faulty accelerator pedals that could possibly cause fatal accidents and another in June over windshield wipers and exterior trim issues.
