Kristian O'Hare
A woman crashed her Tesla into a pool in San Rafael. Cops say she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, cops aren’t sure if the autopilot was engaged or not. Veered off the road, as if she aimed right for that fence, into the pool, and died. Life’s a timing thing. That’s what the woman who owns the house, the pool, says to the reporter. She had been standing outside with her cup of tea, waiting for the dog to pee, just seconds before the crash. She complains about the damage done to the landscaping, to the flowering plum, the green sphere manzanita and coville’s lipfern, then she catches herself but a human life was lost. A black Tesla remains half-submerged. The white clouds reflect off the cracked windshield, a play of light squiggle snakes across the acrylic blue surface of the pool. A police officer, in a yellow reflector vest, uses a skimmer net to catch debris, slivers of wood fence and palm tree fronds, while Hummingbirds dodge in and out of a pink currant bush behind her.