Newly released video and photos shed light on fatal Cybertruck crash in Piedmont

PIEDMONT, Calif. - Newly released photos and videos from a fatal crash in Piedmont are shedding more light on the moments after three college sophomores riding in a Tesla Cybertruck died in a crash on the way home from a get-together with friends. 

KTVU obtained 16 videos and 102 still photos from a California Public Records Request, which show some of the tragic events that occurred on Nov. 27, 2024, about 3 a.m. at Hampton Road and King Avenue.

The videos, released by the California Highway Patrol on Wednesday evening, are a combination of Piedmont police body camera videos, mostly of interviews with witnesses, and a collection of neighborhood surveillance cameras, showing grainy images of the Cybertruck rounding the corner and a series of bright, flashing lights. The still photographs are all from the crash site. 

Most of the information about what happened has already been reported: Driver Soren Dixon, 19; Jack Nelson, 20; and Krysta Tsukahara, 19; died in the crash, after the Cybertruck crashed into a tree and burst into flames. 

The fourth passenger, Jordan Miller, survived – he was pulled to safety by a friend who was trailing behind the group. 

Police had already said that Dixon was driving too fast. 

And in February, coroner's autopsies of the three college students showed that all had drugs and alcohol in their systems. 

But this visual evidence reveals for the first time new elements and heartbreaking details that have not been publicly reported before.

That includes cleaner photos of the Cybertruck, home video showing Miller huddled in a driveway and being walked off the scene by firefighters, a friend describing the Cybertruck being engulfed in a "ball of fire," the fact that the Cybertruck belonged to Dixon's grandparents, and the moment Miller's father was told that his son was the only one to have survived. 

None of the video that was released shows the actual accident or the truck on fire. 

Father told his son was sole survivor

One of the most poignant videos shows Jordan Miller's father being told that his son was the sole survivor of the crash.

At 6:20 a.m., about three hours after the crash, a Piedmont police officer is seen on body camera video speaking to Miller's father, who had arrived at the scene.

At first, it's obvious from the interaction that the father doesn't know exactly what happened. 

The officer asks the father for ID and for his son's driver's license. 

The officer later tells the father there was a traffic collision.

The father asks, "With a pedestrian? Is everything OK?"

The officer says "yeah," adding that he is just trying to confirm identities for now. 

About three minutes into the body camera video, the officer tells the father that his son is the only survivor of the accident.

"What?!" the father exclaimed with this new information. 

"That's all the information I can give you," the officer said, adding that Miller was taken to the hospital and was in surgery. 

The officer also told the father that his son was pulled out of the car by his friend. 

Some of the conversation was redacted, and when the sound comes back, the father is heard sighing, saying, "I know the family….People in the car died?" 

The officer then asks the father not to tell the next of kin; he'd like that to be done by authorities.

"Shit!" the father said. "I gotta go." 

Friend describes pulling passenger out

Another body camera video shows police interviewing a young man who had been trailing behind the Cybertruck and who ended up pulling Miller out of the burning vehicle. 

KTVU is not reporting the young man's name as he has not granted an interview. 

This young man had previously described breaking the Cybertruck windows and trying to save all his friends in a written report to the CHP.

But this video, for the first time, shows how shaky his voice was when telling officers how he pulled Miller to safety from a "ball of flames." 

"I broke the front and back windows," he told an officer. "I pulled the front passenger out. But there was too much fire." 

The young man also is heard telling police that the Cybertruck belonged to Dixon's grandparents and that he knew Dixon had been drinking. 

When police asked if anything went wrong with the vehicle, the friend said in general that Teslas are known to have acceleration problems. 

Video of lone survivor

A neighbor directly across from the crash site gave police surveillance video of their driveway, which shows Miller walking to a driveway and crumpling down by a parked Tesla.

Miller is accompanied by a young woman, who had been riding with him in a car that had been following the Cybertruck. 

The young woman and another male friend are seen talking to Miller, and being interviewed by police officers in the driveway. 

There is no audio on the video, so it's unclear what's being said.

The male friend is seen getting down low to hold Miller's head and talk with him. 

From the video, it does not appear as if the police officers are acting urgently to transport Miller anywhere.  

Eventually, a Piedmont firefighter arrives, the video shows, and ends up helping Miller walk gingerly down the driveway. 

On Thursday morning, KTVU contacted Miller's mother to let the family know about the release of the videos but did not immediately hear back. 

The other families have not spoken publicly and requested privacy since the fatal accident. 

PiedmontNews