Tesla driver who said vehicle sped up on its own charged in S.F. crash that killed 27-year-old

A Tesla driver who said his car accelerated on its own before spinning into traffic and killing another motorist was charged with felony vehicular manslaughter, felony reckless driving and three misdemeanor hit-and-run charges on Monday, court documents show.

Jia Lin Zheng, 67, was expected to be arraigned Tuesday with the help of a Cantonese interpreter. He had not entered a plea as of Monday afternoon and was being represented by Adam Gasner, a private defense attorney.

• Update: S.F. judge orders release of Tesla driver involved in deadly SoMa crash ahead of trial

In court Monday, the girlfriend and relatives of 27-year-old Mikhael Romanenko, the man who died in the crash, appeared by Zoom.

Booking records show Zheng was processed into San Francisco County Jail on Sunday, eight months after the deadly crash that began on an Interstate 280 off-ramp and ended on Sixth Street in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco on Jan. 19.

According to California Highway Patrol reports, the Tesla sideswiped three vehicles as it zipped down the off-ramp and began running red lights on Sixth Street at speeds reaching 90 mph. The frenzy ended when the Tesla smashed into Romanenko’s car, thrusting it into an unoccupied Waymo robotaxi and several other cars.

Romanenko, who was driving with his girlfriend and girlfriend’s dog, was killed almost instantly. The dog, Keeper, also died in the wreck. Seven people from six other vehicles were injured. Witnesses described the car Zheng was driving as a “black blur” and the driver “a madman.”

Zheng, who was also injured in the crash, was initially arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, but quickly released while prosecutors decided whether to charge him. Zheng told police that his car had malfunctioned before the crash and claimed it accelerated every time he stepped on the brake. 

At the time of the crash, Zheng did not have alcohol in his system and his vitals suggested he hadn’t recently suffered from a medical episode, court records show. Tesla drivers have long reported incidents of what is called “sudden unintended acceleration,” where drivers report their cars hurtling forward or backward on their own. 

While some accelerations can be triggered by a mechanical defect or electrical failure, they can also be the result of driver error, such as mistaking the brake and gas pedals.

In August, Romanenko’s mother, Julia Romanenko, decried the San Francisco district attorney’s decision not to charge Zheng, who was released back to his home state of Hawaii not long after the crash. Traffic incident records show Zheng was cited for speeding five times in Hawaii, in addition to having infractions for allegedly running a red light and disobeying a traffic control sign.

Anna Dubrovsky, an attorney for Julia Romanenko, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Zheng and his relatives in San Francisco Superior Court in May. The suit seeks unspecified damages and names Zheng’s son and daughter-in-law, who owned the Tesla and allegedly were “well-aware of Jia Lin Zheng’s tendency to drive dangerously and at a high rate of speed, without any regard for traffic signals.”