A 19 year-old woman was seconds from escaping a Cybertruck crash that killed two of her friends before she was engulfed in flames and died.
Soren Dixon, Jack Nelson, and Krysta Tsukahara, all 19, died in the fiery crash in Piedmont, California, at 3.08am local time on November 27.
Jordan Miller, 20, was pulled alive from the SUV and seriously burned, but survived after several surgeries and a long hospital stay.
The witness who rescued Miller said he tried to pull Tsukahara through the same window as she clambered from the back seat, but couldn’t get her out.
‘I went back to the broken window and yelled for them to try and get out at this window. Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head from the back.
‘I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me but she retreated because of the fire.
The college sophomores were old friends who graduated Piedmont High School in 2023 and were home in the wealthy enclave for Thanksgiving from universities around the country.
California Highway Patrol, which led the crash investigation, detailed the desperate efforts of a witness to save the teens moments after impact.
The witness said he was at the same small party the four students were drinking at, and was following them as Dixon drove it to Miller’s house.
Krysta Tsukahara, 19, was killed along with two friends in a Tesla Cybertruck crash in Piedmont, east of Oakland
Jordan Miller, 20, was pulled alive from the SUV and seriously burned, but survived after several surgeries and a long hospital stay
He briefly lost sight of the truck as it went around a bend, which a drunk and high on cocaine Dixon failed to negotiate, jumped the curb, and crashed into a tree.
Confronted with the wrecked truck, he ran to help and smashed the front passenger window by hitting it with a tree branch 10 to 15 times.
‘I saw a car on fire wedged between a wall and a tree. I instantly knew by the tail it was the Cybertruck. [Miller] was barely conscious,’ he told police.
‘He had his seatbelt on and I couldn’t reach it, so I scream at him to undo it. Eventually he was able to unbuckle. I was able to pull him up and out of the window.’
Having rescued Miller, he went back to the car to try saving the others. Tsukahara was sitting behind Miller and closest to the window.
The witness then detailed her harrowing but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to escape.
The fire, which began at the front of the truck, was spreading across the vehicle though Miller’s seat towards Tsukahara, so he tried to get through her window.
‘I then grabbed the stick again and began to break the right rear window. I was able to break and pull the window from its frame but once I got in, the fire had made its way throughout the entire car,’ he told police.
Soren Dixon, 19, was drunk and high on cocaine and meth when he drove too fast around a bend and crashed into a tree, killing himself and two friends in the passenger seats
Jack Nelson (pictured) and Dixon were stars on the Piedmont HS lacrosse team and Nelson also played junior varsity football and varsity soccer
The Tesla EV jumped a curb and crashed into a tree, then burst into flames
‘It was at this point that the first two squad cars arrived. I immediately ran to them yelling there are people in there.’
CHP troopers wrote in the report that the witness ‘was unable to continue assisting others out… due to the severity of the fire’.
Police chief Jeremy Bowers said in the days after the crash that the witness was driving solo behind them and ‘was able to pull the person out, but the nature of the vehicle was a Cybertruck and the heat was just too intense’.
Dixon had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.195 and his blood samples tested positive for cocaine and meth, according to toxicology results.
The report found Dixon’s impairment, combined with him driving at an unsafe speed, led to him being unable to negotiate a bend in the road.
‘Officers determined that a combination of driving under the influence of drugs and unsafe speed were the causes of this crash,’ the report determined.
The witness told police that Dixon drank about ‘eight alcoholic beverages ranging from beer and vodka’ at the party before the group left.
The vehicle crashed around 3.08 am on November 27, 2024, in Piedmont in Alameda County
They then went to Dixon’s house so he could get the Cybertruck and drive them all to Miller’s home.
Who owned the truck was redacted from the report and it was not clear if it belonged to Dixon, Miller, or either of their parents.
Autopsies on the other victims found they were also high on cocaine, and Tsukahara had a blood alcohol content of at 0.028 and Nelson of 0.168.
Their deaths, ruled accidental by the Alameda County Coroner’s Office, were primarily caused by asphyxia due to smoke inhalation, but burns were a ‘significant’ contributing factor.
Miller was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in a medically induced coma.
His mother, Samantha Miller, told DailyMail.com in December that he had been in ‘critical’ condition following several surgeries.
The Tesla EV jumped a curb and crashed into a tree, then burst into flames, destroying the front of the truck. Police said the blaze was a normal car fire and not related to the electric battery.
AJ Harris, a Piedmont HS basketball player and friend of both Dixon (second from left) and Nelson (right), mourned both of them with photos of the trio together since they were young kids
Photos of Tsukahara and her friends are pinned to a tree near the crash site
Authorities said fire crews tried to douse the fireball with extinguishers, but the intensity of the flames was too hot.
All four of those involved in the crash were sophomore students at universities across the country and had been friends since high school.
Nelson and Dixon were stars on the Piedmont HS lacrosse team and Nelson also played junior varsity football and varsity soccer with Miller.
Dixon continued playing lacrosse at the University of Southern California and Nelson studied at the University of Colorado Boulder and joined the Sigma Nu fraternity.
Tsukahara was on the school’s golf team and competed around the state, and was studying at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia.
Miller was a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, where his older sister also studied.
All four of the teens came from wealthy families whose homes were worth several million dollars each.
Dixon (second from left) and Nelson (far right) in a photo from high school
Bronson Boyle (left), who shared a room with Dixon at USC, shared a photo of them standing in their dorm room calling him ‘the best roommate and friend I ever could’ve asked for’
Bronson Boyle, who was Dixon’s roommate at USC, shared a photo of them standing in their dorm room calling him ‘the best roommate and friend I ever could’ve asked for’.
‘Our first night as roommates we snuck onto the new north roof, and just talked for hours, getting to know one another,’ he wrote.
‘That first day encounter, and every day of the 8 months that followed as roommates, were filled with unpredictable fun. Always upbeat, ever inviting, and ferociously fun – that’s who you were. I’m so glad to have known you.
‘I’ll always remember you as brother-one who was righteous beyond belief. Rest in peace man. I’ll miss ya every day. I’ll raise a glass to you every day forever.’
