Tesla driver who blamed the car’s autopilot setting for crashing into a nurse discovers her fate as she faces deportation

A driver who blamed her Tesla’s autopilot when she mowed down a nurse boarding a tram in March 2022 has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Indian Sakshi Agrawal, 25, who is in Australia on a bridging visa, could be deported to her home country after serving her sentence for the hit-and-run crime.

The P-plater pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury and failing to stop at the Victorian County Court, just days before her trial was due to start over the early morning crash on Wattletree Road in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale .

Nurse Nicole Lagos, then 26, spent a fortnight in an induced coma and suffered life-changing injuries after she was hit at 58km/h and thrown 10 meters as she boarded a tram.

The tram driver and other passengers heard a loud “bang,” while a driver behind Agrawal’s $68,000 Model 3 Tesla saw Ms. Lagos throw it “as high as the stop sign in the air.”

Agrawal initially fled the scene in panic, but returned two hours later, where she was arrested by police.

The court heard she initially told police the Tesla was on autopilot and the automatic braking function failed when Ms Lagos ‘jumped’ in front of her car.

But investigation later revealed that the autopilot function had not been activated at the time, that a possible collision warning had been activated just before the crash and that there was no braking.

CCTV footage showed the luxury vehicle overtaking several cars before ending up behind a busy tram which Agrawal then tried to beat when disaster struck.

Lawyer Nick Papas KC admitted that his client had lied to the police.

“The reality is that she was trying to rationalize her own behavior, trying to explain the inexplicable and how she could do such a thing,” he told the court.

The extent of Ms Lagos’ injuries was laid bare in court, where her harrowing victim impact statement was read out.

She spent two weeks in an induced coma with a traumatic brain injury at The Alfred, the hospital where she worked.

“After waking from the coma, I suffered from post-traumatic amnesia,” Ms Lagos’ statement read.

‘It took me 30 days before I was competent enough to remember things like the day of the week.

“I will have brain damage for the rest of my life.”

Before the collision, Ms. Lagos went to the gym six days a week and trained for a marathon.

She now has a minimal social life, low self-confidence, cannot concentrate for more than an hour at a time and worries about whether she will ever meet a life partner and start a family.

‘Life without dreams is pretty grim. There is nothing to work towards,” she said.

“Every time I pass a car or see a tram, I’m reminded that this happened to me.”

Judge Peter Rozen told Agrawal that she did not stop to help her injured victim as required by law and ‘common decency’, the Herald Sun reported.

‘Instead you accelerated to a speed of approximately 78km/h and continued to drive for approximately two miles before parking your car in Epping Street, Malvern’, where she called her housemate and friend and told her she was ‘scared and did not know what she had to do’. Doing’.

The judge said Agrawal’s dangerous driving was not caused by inattention, but by a “misjudgment” when she chose to pass the tram before it came to a stop.

He rejected defense counsel’s call for a community corrections order, instead agreeing with prosecutors that a custodial sentence was required.

Sakshi Agrawal (pictured interrogated by police) initially fled the scene of the collision but returned two hours later

The P-plater pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious injury and failing to stop at the Victorian County Court, just days before her trial was due to start over the early morning crash on Wattletree Road (pictured) in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale.

“The court must send a message to other drivers, especially young people like you,” he said.

Agrawal, who was fired from her security job for her crimes, had hoped to become a permanent resident of Australia.

But she now faces deportation once her prison sentence is served.

Her driver’s license was revoked and she was prohibited from obtaining a new driver’s license for four years.