Rescue crews tried desperately to wrench open a Cybertruck to free its trapped occupants after a fatal fireball crash, harrowing new photos reveal.
The newly released images obtained by KTVU lay bare the frantic, but ultimately futile, efforts to try and save Soren Dixon, Jack Nelson, and Krysta Tsukahara, all 19.
A fourth passenger, Jordan Miller, was the sole survivor of the horrific collision, which took place in Piedmont, California last Thanksgiving.
Investigators said the Tesla truck was being driven too fast by Dixon, whose blood tested positive for a cocktail of drugs and alcohol.
Miller, 20, was pulled alive from the SUV and seriously burned, but survived after several surgeries and a long hospital stay.
Chilling photos show the burnt out cyber truck with dent marks in the rear passenger door from where rescuers tried to wrench it open.
Another sickening image shows the vehicle’s front fender wrapped around a tree.
The witness who managed to rescue Miller was trailing the Cybertruck at the time. He briefly lost track of the vehicle and then rounded the corner to see it engulfed in flame.
New footage also obtained by KTVU shows the moment the Tesla truck careens dangerously fast around the bend, before crashing just out of frame.
The witness described how he tried to pull Tsukahara through the same window as she clambered from the back seat, but couldn’t get her out.
‘I just turned the corner and I see the car in a ball of flame,’ he is heard shakily recounting to an officer at the scene in another new bodycam clip.
‘I tried to open the doors but everything was so damaged I couldn’t. I broke the front and back windows. I pulled the front passenger out. But there was too much fire.’
He also tells officers that the truck belonged to Dixon’s grandparents and that he had been drinking, but appeared okay to drive.
A police 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.
They then went to Dixon’s house so he could get his grandparents’ Cybertruck and drive them all to Miller’s home.
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.
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.