Miraculously, no one was injured when a Tesla crashed into a California home on Friday, police said.
Several officers responded to the scene at the intersection of Murphy and Ashwood drives in San Mateo shortly after 7 a.m. local time, according to SFGATE.
“When the driver lost control of the vehicle, the car went over a curb and through a neighbour’s driveway and then through a fence separating the two properties,” Jerami Surratt, a public information officer for the San Mateo Police Department, said in a statement. “The fence and the back of the house is approximately 40 feet.”
According to SFGATE, the 70-year-old driver and her 40-year-old daughter’s Tesla flew about 40 to 50 feet in the air over a swimming pool before landing in the home’s kitchen.
The driver and passenger of the car remained at the scene and spoke to responding officers, Surratt said in a statement to PEOPLE. No arrests were made and there was no indication the driver was under the influence.
Surratt said the exact cause of the crash is still under investigation. “The driver stated that she was unfamiliar with driving this car and had not driven in about a year,” Surratt added. “The driver stated that there may have been a problem with the car. [Witnesses to the collision stated that the vehicle was slowing down and then accelerating rapidly prior to the collision.” Authorities were told the car was not in self-driving mode.
The mother and daughter, who have not yet been identified, remained at the scene, according to SFGATE and NBC affiliate KNTV. No one was home at the time of the crash.
Meredith Donato, the daughter of the homeowner, told Fox affiliate KTVU that her sister received a security alert that “someone had broken into the house”.
Her sister eventually learned that a Tesla had crashed into the kitchen of her mother’s home, KTVU reported. Surratt said “the kitchen was damaged and the back wall of the house was damaged”, but he wasn’t sure “what other damage was done to the house during the collision”.
“If my mother was in the house, she would have been in the kitchen having her tea at 7 a.m.,” Donato told KTVU. “There’s obviously property damage, but at the end of the day, it’s just stuff.”
Donato’s sister, Doria Charlson, told KNTV: “I’ve lived here for almost 30 years and I’ve never had a car fly into our backyard. Overwhelmingly, our family is just really happy that no one was hurt, which is pretty miraculous when you see the car behind me”.
“The back wall of the house is damaged,” Surratt added. “The fire brigade have red-tagged the house to ensure an inspection is carried out before the occupants re-enter the house.”
