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Mitch McConnell’s sister in law, billionaire Angela Chao, drowned in her 2020 Tesla Model X because she couldn’t break reinforced glass windows after she accidentally put her Tesla in reverse
Chao died when her SUV went into a pond on her property.
She most likely didn't know about the manual door release.
Over the next several hours, her friends, then the ranch manager and his wife, and first responders tried to break the windows or find an escape hatch to get Chao out of the car.
Several tools were used to attempt access to the victim, including Hallagan tool, unsuccessfully.
An investigation into the vehicle determined that the Tesla’s reinforced glass windows made it impossible for Chao to break them underwater, trapping her inside.
NOTE:
The windshield, roof glass, rear liftgate glass are made of laminated safety glass. The side windows can be either tempered or laminated glass. They are pretty much impossible to break.
FYI:
Here is a list of vehicles made with laminated glass. Unfortunately a bit outdated - from 2019.
I can't find anything more current:
Strong, laminated glass is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes the vehicle quieter inside, and can serve as part of the structure in a crash.
It's very unfortunate that she died in this incident, but calling this a crime doesn't sound right. At worst, I can see an argument of negligence being made and that would be a civil suit, not a crime, unless there was really some kind of egregious, reckless negligence, then there can be criminal negligence. I don't see how you get to that - as you yourself noted, Tesla isn't the first car company to use laminated glass, and in fact it's normally regarded as a plus and it's used in premium vehicles. Teslas have excellent crash performance, and while impossible to quantify, one could reasonably argue that in many cases this glass has *saved* lives.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 03-12-2024 at 04:54 AM..
Of course, there is a long list (posted above) of cars using laminate glass. It saves life by preventing ejections.
The possible problem is that there is no working tool on the market that could quickly break such glass and save life.
Also a lot of vehicle owners have no clue how to escape when trapped inside in case of emergency, when battery is dead.
Some vehicles have emergency manual door release, with location that is not so obvious. Other vehicles are even more complicated. For example, Ford sedan: there is no emergency door release anywhere near the drivers door.
One has to get to the back seats, find the release to flip them down in order to get into the trunk to access the emergency pull located at the trunk door. All that hassle when every second counts.
This requires a lot of agility and nowadays not all drivers are going to perform it quickly, or ever.
Of course, there is a long list (posted above) of cars using laminate glass. It saves life by preventing ejections.
The possible problem is that there is no working tool on the market that could quickly break such glass and save life.
Also a lot of vehicle owners have no clue how to escape when trapped inside in case of emergency, when battery is dead.
Some vehicles have emergency manual door release, with location that is not so obvious. Other vehicles are even more complicated. For example, Ford sedan: there is no emergency door release anywhere near the drivers door.
One has to get to the back seats, find the release to flip them down in order to get into the trunk to access the emergency pull located at the trunk door. All that hassle when every second counts.
This requires a lot of agility and nowadays not all drivers are going to perform it quickly, or ever.
I believe that it can also play a structural role in crashes, transmitting and spreading out forces in the plane of the windshield, so they are not carried by the A-pillars alone, and this can help retain the passenger compartment shape in rollover crashes, as well as frontal and side impacts.
Laminated automotive glass can be broken in an emergency. However, the responders have to know where to attach the breaker as walloping and rapping the main surface will do little and using the breaker anywhere you feel like it won't work. There are some security versions of a vehicle that have a tiny symbol on the glass showing where to use the breaker. Its probably so uncommon, many responders don't have the right tool for or training on this type of glass.
Sad. She might be alive if she had read her User Manual for the manual door release. That said, if there is too much water pressure on the door, breaking the glass may be your only possible way out.
Mitch McConnell’s sister in law, billionaire Angela Chao, drowned in her 2020 Tesla Model X because she couldn’t break reinforced glass windows after she accidentally put her Tesla in reverse
Chao died when her SUV went into a pond on her property.
She most likely didn't know about the manual door release.
Over the next several hours, her friends, then the ranch manager and his wife, and first responders tried to break the windows or find an escape hatch to get Chao out of the car.
Several tools were used to attempt access to the victim, including Hallagan tool, unsuccessfully.
An investigation into the vehicle determined that the Tesla’s reinforced glass windows made it impossible for Chao to break them underwater, trapping her inside.
NOTE:
The windshield, roof glass, rear liftgate glass are made of laminated safety glass. The side windows can be either tempered or laminated glass. They are pretty much impossible to break.
FYI:
Here is a list of vehicles made with laminated glass. Unfortunately a bit outdated - from 2019.
I can't find anything more current:
around 2006? ish I witnessed a head on crash outside of phillipsburg PA on a US route, but 2 lane.
Some guy in a new f-u truck, drunk from a steeler game watch, rear ended some car at high speed (and burst its freshly-sheetz-filled tank which did not catch! or else no one would have lived.) and in typical drunk fashion swerved to miss AFTER the wreck and into the equinox in front of me, even if we assume 40mph in the 55, the closing speed was still a hair under 80mph after some defensive braking.
I missed the entire wreck by 20 ft only because a Jetta5 had great brakes at full mash.
I got the teen girl out of the original hit car first, figuring no one lived in the equinox, the window was partly down so one good kick shattered it, no doors would open due to body shift. she skedaddled as we were both standing in a large gas puddle - I saw THAT movie.
4 occupants of the equinox were trapped and it burst into flames. You know the movies where Arnold or van damme punch a window and it shatters? complete horsepuckey. My elbow hurts to this day from trying to break it, I found a tire iron and it took multiple whacks to get it open. 2 teens in the back scrambled out, the boy nearly died from internals he didnt know he had (wear those seatbelts properly!) and the eerily calm mom in the front withered for weeks and died from internals she had, as well as 2 broken legs from the crash. Dad was pinned as the firewall was compromised and it half sawed off his foot with the jagged metal, so we turned our attention to firefighting the stubborn engine fire. my kit in my cars to this day is now a 5 or 10bc and a cheap-azz walmart 16oz hammer you use with a decent 16D nail driving whack. the vehicle lights were on, but the body computer would not handle power windows or locks, my only option was thru the glass. When the FD arrives and they wetted down all the gas and put the fire totally out, went to this gas powered 'concrete saw' to cut the SUV into chunks. its tougher than you think to bust modern glass, especially if its in the frame.
OP, from the story, was the lady still alive in the car for that hour or did it fill quickly?
We have tools to break the glass in all of our vehicles in an emergency. We have the Cybertruck on order and I was wondering what device would work on that glass?
I feel bad the woman died but she was entertaining friends for Chinese New Year on a private ranch and she drove the car into the water. My thinking: Alcohol likely was a major contributor to her demise.
Car wasn't in deep water (cop was standing on the roof of the car) but electrocution was a concern for one of the tow truck drivers. Being Texas, why didn't someone simply shoot out one of the windows?
I can't believe no one could come up with an 8 lb sledge and a wrecking bar on a ranch?
I know right where I have two sledge hammers, a wrecking bar, and a 6 foot digging bar, right now. I guarantee a full size adult man could get through the window of that car.
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