TRAGIC LAST CALL
Help came too late for billionaire in sinking Tesla
Angela Chao, Sen. Mitch McConnell’s billionaire sister-inlaw, spent her last minutes alive frantically calling her friends for help as her Tesla slowly sank in a pond on a remote Texas ranch, according to a report.
Chao, the former CEO of dry bulk shipping giant Foremost Group, died at the age of 50 after accidentally backing her car into the pond while making a threepoint turn on Feb. 10.
The driving mishap was detailed in a Wall Street Journal report that shed light on the chaotic rescue efforts that ultimately came up short, turning what was supposed to be a celebratory weekend with friends into a nightmare.
Chao invited several of her girlfriends from Harvard Business School to spend the weekend on a gorgeous, sprawling 900-acre private property in Texas’ Hill Country, which included horse stables, a pool and a 10-bedroom guesthouse, the Journal reported.
After eating dinner together and celebrating the Chinese New Year on the eve of the holiday, Chao left the guesthouse around 11:30 p.m. to head back to the main house, where her son was sleeping. It was cold out, so she decided to take her Tesla Model X SUV for the fourminute drive rather than walk.
But within minutes, she called one of her friends in a panic. While making a K-turn, she had put the car in reverse, she told them, and backed up over an embankment and into a pond — and she was sinking fast.
Her friends ran to help, and one woman jumped in the pond, the Journal reported. The property’s ranch manager and his wife came outside after hearing the commotion and somebody called 911.
Blanco County emergency units arrived at 12:28 a.m. — 24 minutes after they received the call, an incident report obtained by the paper said. Due to the rugged terrain, several responders got out of their cars and walked to the scene.
A dive team was needed to reach the submerged Tesla, which was much farther out in the pond than responders had anticipated, but none were available, officials said.
Electrocution fears
A tow truck then arrived to pull the car out of the pond, but its cable was too short.
A longer cable was eventually retrieved. At least one tow truck driver, however, said he was afraid of being electrocuted by the electric car, a witness told the paper.
At around 12:56 a.m., a two-man rescue crew finally pulled Chao from the car, police said. She was unresponsive, and EMS workers attempted to resuscitate her for 43 minutes to no avail.
Details about Chao’s death had been scant. The Blanco County Sheriff’s Office last week called it “an unfortunate accident,” but said they were still investigating.
Chao’s sister Elaine is married to McConnell and served in the cabinets of Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.