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A 34-year-old Danville man died after a Tesla Model S vehicle was found in a pond off of Crow Canyon Road just outside San Ramon in unincorporated Alameda County on Sunday night, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.
The man, identified by the Alameda County coroner’s bureau as Keith Leung, died when the Tesla apparently went off the roadway while traveling north in the 11000 block of Crow Canyon Road and ended up in the water about 65 feet from the edge of the pond, CHP spokesman Officer Dan Jacowitz said.
Alameda County fire officials received the report at about 8:30 p.m. A dive team from the county sheriff’s office responded in what Jacowitz described as challenging conditions including zero visibility and heavy brush.
The blue Tesla was found with Leung still seated inside, according to Jacowitz. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash remains under investigation, including whether the Tesla’s autopilot function was engaged while Leung was driving on the windy, two-lane county road.
An engineer by trade, Leung was also active in the arts around the Bay Area, serving as an orchestra manager at Stage 1 Theatres in Newark as well as an assistant equipment manager, conductor, musician and charter member for the Danville Community Band.
“Our thoughts and condolences are with the family of Keith Leung who was lost in a single-automobile crash yesterday. Keith was a charter member of the Danville Community Band and was one of Bob Calonico’s Cal Band members in his days at Cal,” Danville Community Band said on Facebook. “We will miss Keith, dearly. RIP Keith.”
Leung was a versatile musician, starting off at the community band playing the bass clarinet, before transitioning to his forte instrument, bassoon, according to George March, business manager for the band. Leung also played all the saxes, virtually all the clarinets and flutes and even dabbled in some trumpet, horn, violin and cello.
“His primary reasoning for playing ‘everything’ was because he was very much a team player and wanted to make sure as much music got covered as possible. For pit orchestras this is a pretty valuable skill,” March said. “Keith was fairly social in the DCB, happy to talk with anyone. He loved to travel, and … loved playing in pit orchestras.”
A University of California at Berkeley graduate, Leung was pursuing a chemical engineering career as a process engineer at Criterion Catalysts and Technologies in Bay Point, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Story by Bay City News Service, with DanvilleSanRamon.com reporter Ryan J. Degan contributing.
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Story by Bay City News Service, with DanvilleSanRamon.com reporter Ryan J. Degan contributing.
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Story by Bay City News Service, with DanvilleSanRamon.com reporter Ryan J. Degan contributing.
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CHP logo. -
Keith Leung, who died in a single-car crash on Crow Canyon Road just outside San Ramon on Sunday night, was an active member of the Danville Community Band. (Photo courtesy of Danville Community Band) -
Keith Leung was a versatile musician and a “team player” (Photo courtesy of Danville Community Band)
The Tesla Model S weighs more than a comparably sized car, so you need to account for that when turning on narrow roads.
If he drove that stretch of road often he should be used to those turns. Unless autopilot was on and it couldnt make it… would be another black eye for tesla if this was the case. We’ll see as the investigation unfolds.
Autopilot was not on.
It was a straight part of the road.
It was early in the AM.
There was no reason for him to be on that road going home from San Mateo other than to show off.
It is a curvy mountain road not a short cut unless there is traffic delays on 580 East which there wasn’t at 1AM.
My daughter went to school with Keith and knew him from band and said he was a very sweet young man. That said, Crow Canyon at night is a dangerous, dark and curvy road with abundant wildlife around. Just looking at the photos of the damage to the car and the fact that it was 65 feet from the edge of the pond indicates an extremely high speed impact. In the absence of skid marks, it would seem that the driver was either impaired or suffered a catastrophic medical condition preventing him from attempting to stop the vehicle from going into the pond. I do not want to even consider the other possible alternative.