Driver slammed for lacking “common decency” after blaming Tesla for pedestrian hit-and-run

A driver who blamed her Tesla for failing to brake on “autopilot” when she crashed into a nurse has been jailed.

Sakshi Agrawal was sentenced to nine months jail after she hit a nurse and blamed her Tesla’s ‘autopilot’. Picture: David Geraghty

A driver who blamed her Tesla for failing to brake itself on “autopilot” when she crashed into a woman getting on a tram has been sentenced to nine months jail.

Sakshi Agrawal, 25, faces the prospect of deportation back to India after she hit a nurse heading to work then blamed her car for the smash, in March 2022.

The security officer was on her way to work as the manager at the Victoria Police building when she hit Nicole Lagos, 26, with a Tesla Model 3 car as she stepped up to a waiting tram on Wattletree Rd in Armadale, about 6.30am.

The tram driver and other passengers heard a loud “bang”, while a driver behind Agrawal’s Tesla saw Ms Lagos “thrown into the air as high as the stop sign”.

Agrawal sped off in a “panic” but returned to the crash site two hours later where she was arrested.

She later told police her “Tesla was on autopilot” and had an “autobraking function but did not detect the lady and (she) could not press the brakes because it was too late”.

“Autopilot in (my) Tesla is when the car drives automatically and stays in the one lane and (I) just have (my) hand on the steering wheel in case the autopilot fails,” She told officers.

“The car has automatic braking and it should brake automatically if there is a car or person in front of it.”

Sakshi Agrawal faces deportation to India after hitting the nurse with her Tesla. Picture: David Geraghty

Agrawal claimed she activated autopilot when she turned into Wattletree Road, but an inspection of the car found the autosteer function wasn’t active.

However, an alert had been triggered by something in the path of the car, with a safety warning sending a chime of a potential crash, but there was no record of braking in response.

Ms Lagos, who was thrown eight to ten metres across the road, suffered a fractured skull and an acquired brain injury, which continue to cause her problems today.

She told the court she was haunted by uncertainty around her professional, social and romantic hopes due to her injury.

Judge Peter Rozen told Agrawal she didn’t stop to help her injured victim, as was required by law and “common decency”.

“Instead you accelerated to a speed of approximately 78 km/h and continued to drive for around three kilometres before parking your vehicle in Epping Street, Malvern” where she called her housemate and boyfriend, telling them she was “scared and did not know what to do”.

She pleaded guilty last month on the eve of her County Court trial to dangerous driving causing serious injury and failing to stop after an accident.

Judge Rozen said the dangerous driving wasn’t caused by inattention, but “misjudgment” after she chose to pass the tram before it came to a stop.

His Honour rejected the call from Agrawal’s defence lawyers that she be handed a “sufficiently long” community corrections order, instead agreeing with prosecutors that she needed to be jailed to satisfy a need for general deterrence.

“A message must be sent by the courts to other drivers, especially young people like you,” he said.

Agrawal, who was fired from her security job because of her crimes, is on a bridging visa and was hoping to become a permanent resident.

But she may now face deportation due to her criminal convictions.

Along with a nine month jail term, Agrawal’s licence was cancelled and she was banned from getting another one for four years.

Had she not pleaded guilty, she would have been jailed for 12 months.