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A San Bruno father has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter after a November roll-over crash killed two of his daughters and severely injured a CHP officer, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Arvind Tandel, 48, was driving home from a Black Friday all-night shopping trip with his 34-year-old wife and four daughters, ages 12 to 24 when the accident occurred on Nov. 23, 2012, at 6:49 a.m. on U.S. 101 at Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.
Mr. Tandel was driving his Lexus SUV northbound from Gilroy after having only three hours of broken sleep in a 24-hour period, said Cindy Hendrickson, supervising deputy district attorney.
The four daughters were crowded into a back seat fitted for only three. The two victims who died were not wearing seat belts. A seat in the third row was folded down to make room for the family’s purchases, she said. The official charges are misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence.
“These dangerous conditions led to an enormous tragedy that could have been even worse. This was a preventable tragedy,” Ms. Hendrickson said.
“The defendant is not the first person to drive while extremely sleepy nor the first person to drive with unbelted passengers. Yet this case shows in tragic detail the consequences that can flow from such conduct. It should serve as a reminder to us all about the need for vigilance in adhering to safety rules. This is why the district attorney’s office decided that charges were warranted in this case despite the defendant’s extreme personal loss,” she said.
A witness driving behind the vehicle allegedly saw Mr. Tandel driving close to the white line that separates the freeway lanes from the right-hand shoulder just before the accident, and the witness moved to the far left lanes to stay away from the impending crash, Ms. Hendrickson said.
A California Highway Patrol officer was in his cruiser on the shoulder assisting two motorists attempting to change a tire on their truck. The motorists had set out three emergency triangles and the officer’s vehicle was flashing a left-directional arrow indicating that motorists should move left, Hendrickson said.
Mr. Tandel’s vehicle drifted closer to the police car and struck the left rear of the patrol car, sending it into one of the two stranded motorists and severely injuring the officer. The accident was recorded on the patrol car’s video recorder, which showed that the officer’s car and the disabled truck were pulled over on a wide construction shoulder.
The Lexus rolled as many as seven times and two of his adult daughters were ejected onto the freeway. Nisha Tandel, 24, was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. Her sister, Sheetal Tandel, 20, died later that night at Stanford Hospital, according to the CHP.
The mother, Yogita Tandel, 34, was also brought to Stanford Hospital with major injuries but survived. Two other daughters, the 12-year-old who had moderate injuries and her sister Payal Tandel, 22, were taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. Arvind Tandel suffered major injuries and was also taken to Valley Medical, the CHP said at the time.
The CHP officer sustained serious injuries and only returned to work last month. Had the officer exited his vehicle, which he planned to do, he would have been killed, she said.
“It is absolutely miraculous that there weren’t more deaths,” Hendrickson said, adding that the SUV rolled off the freeway and up the off-ramp before landing in a depression off the road. Traffic was heavy on the freeway and on the off-ramp, but perhaps because motorists saw that Mr. Tandel was losing control of his car, they might have slowed down to avoid the impending accident. That caused a break in heavy exiting traffic onto the Embarcadero off-ramp, she said.
Filing the charges is not meant to make an example out of Mr. Tandel, Hendrickson said. “It is a recognition that a great harm occurred because of a violation of the law and of the consequences of that,” she said. “The harm to the public could have been much worse. That’s the issue we can’t ignore.”
Mr. Tandel has no previous record of traffic violations, she said. Ms. Hendrickson said she hopes the case will serve as a reminder to everyone of the tragic consequences of a lack of sleep, which she said is as detrimental as driving drunk, and of not wearing seat belts.
The charges were filed Thursday and Mr. Tandel is expected to turn himself in soon for booking. He and his family were notified of the pending charges, she said. He would be released on bail or without bail after booking, she said.
Considering his personal losses, the DA’s office would not seek jail time or probably even community service, typical punishments for this type of offense, she said. But Mr. Tandel would face restrictions to his driver’s license based on the Department of Motor Vehicles rules, which could mean a suspension for up to 1.5 years.
Mr. Tandel’s private attorney, Dan Barton, said his client is devastated by the death of his daughters and injury to his wife and other children.
“It’s really a tragedy that they are deciding to file criminal charges. He’s certainly a man who is suffering or grieving in a very painful manner. This isn’t going to do any good for anyone — not for Mr. Tandel or his wife or his daughters who will now see their father facing criminal charges.
“I think it’s unnecessary. The mistake he made is a very ordinary mistake and one that any driver can relate to.
“Nothing that happens is going to be worse than what has happened to him,” Barton said.
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so sad and sorry for this tragedy… having a vehicle that is not big enough for a family is something to think about if you are going to have large purchases to displace a person/seatbelt… that is the first priority for a parent. and i wouldn’t call this an ordinary mistake (unless you were a child) and i don’t think it is something ANY driver can relate to.
The daughters that perished in this horrible accident were ages 22 and 24, and the mother was 34 years old? It does not say “step-mother.” She gave birth at 10 years old to her first daughter? And why in the world would they have let this man drive if he had only 3 hours of broken sleep in the previous 24 hours – is this “planning”?