Dimple Patel, a woman accused of a fatal DUI crash in March 2024 on I-95 in Philadelphia, was in hands-free mode, according to police

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — The woman facing charges in connection with a multi-vehicle crash on I-95 in Philadelphia in March that left two people dead has turned herself in.

Police claimed she was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident and was using the vehicle’s hands-free function.

Dimple Patel, a 23-year-old medical student from Philadelphia, was charged on August 28 with drunken driving, tampering with evidence, reckless driving, involuntary manslaughter and other related offenses.

She turned herself in to state police on Tuesday morning.

The accident occurred on March 3 at around 3:15 a.m.

According to police, a red Prius was lying on the left shoulder and swaying slightly in the left lane.

According to authorities, a gray Hyundai Elantra was directly behind the Prius.

Investigators believe that the driver of the Hyundai, a name identified as Tolobek Esenbekov, helped the driver of the Prius, Aktilek Baktybekov.

According to police, Baktybekov was standing on the road near the front of the Elantra and Esenbekov was just getting out of the car when the accident occurred.

Then Patel, driving a yellow Ford Mustang Mach-E (model year 2022), allegedly crashed into the rear of the Hyundai.

According to investigators, she was driving at 114 to 116 km/h at the time of the accident and was using the BlueCruise hands-free function and adaptive cruise control.

Four vehicles were involved in the collision; both Baktybekov and Esenbekov were hit.

Both Baktybekov and Esenbekov later succumbed to their injuries.

In a statement Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Police said drivers using advanced technologies should be prepared to regain control at any time.

“No partially automated vehicle technology should ever be required to solely perform the driving tasks required to safely navigate Commonwealth roads,” the agency said.

Ford’s Blue Cruise system allows the driver to take their hands off the wheel while it takes over steering, braking and acceleration on highways. The company says the system is not fully autonomous and checks the driver to make sure they are paying attention to the road.

Defense attorney Zak Goldstein said he had not seen the criminal complaint or any reports of the accident and called the deaths a tragedy, but noted that Pennsylvania law on drunken driving-related homicides broadly requires “that the drunken driving was the cause of the murder.”

“If it is indeed a fault in the autonomous driving or driving system, it may not be manslaughter by driving under the influence, even if the driver is drunk,” he said, adding that he has not seen any case law on the issue in Pennsylvania.

Ford said the company is working with state police, the NTSB and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate the accident.

When the NHTSA began investigating the Philadelphia crash and another in San Antonio involving Blue Cruise, it said both crashes occurred on highways at night and that Blue Cruise was operating immediately before the collisions.

The agency said it is currently reviewing Blue Cruise’s driving duties as well as its camera-based driver monitoring system.

Both the NHTSA and the NTSB have investigated several previous accidents involving partially automated driving systems.

In April, NHTSA began investigating whether Tesla’s solution to a December recall of more than 2 million vehicles equipped with the company’s partially automated Autopilot system resolved the problem. The recall was issued because the driver monitoring system was inadequate and posed a safety risk.

The NHTSA said it identified 956 crashes involving Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self Driving systems between January 2018 and August 2023, resulting in 29 fatalities.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.