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Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
'I'm panicking.' USC's Alijah Arenas recounts harrowing escape from Cybertruck crash
When Alijah Arenas opened his eyes, minutes after his Tesla Cybertruck struck a tree one morning this past April, the five-star Chatsworth High hoops phenom wasn't sure where he was or how he'd gotten there. His initial, disoriented thought was that he'd woken up at home. But as he regained consciousness, Arena felt the seat belt wrapped tightly around his waist. He noticed the Life360 app on his phone, beeping. Outside the car, he could hear crackling sounds, like a campfire. Then he felt the heat like a sauna cranked to its highest setting. The passenger side of the dashboard, Arenas could see, was already engulfed in flames. Smoke was filling the car's front cabin. He could no longer see out of the windows. Arenas reached for his iPhone, intent on using his digital key to escape, only to find the Tesla app had locked him out. Panic started to set in. 'I tried to open the door,' Arenas said, 'and the door isn't opening.' He tore off his seat belt and moved to the back seat, away from the smoke, scanning the car desperately for an exit strategy. His heart was pounding. The heat was becoming unbearable. Then, he passed out. No more than 10 minutes earlier — and less than two miles up Corbin Avenue — Arenas had just wrapped up a predawn workout at the DSTRKT, a gym in Chatsworth, where he'd been working his way up to 10,000 shots that week. One of the top hoops prospects in Southern California, Arenas was weeks away from graduating from Chatsworth High after three years with the intention of joining USC a year early in 2025. He was doing everything he could to prepare for that extraordinary leap. He was on his way home from the gym, driving south on Corbin as he had so many times before, when Arenas noticed that the Cybertruck — which is registered to his father, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas — was acting strangely. The car wasn't reading that he left the gym. The keypad kept flickering on and off. After stopping at one red light, he tried to switch lanes, only to notice that 'the wheel wasn't moving as easily as it should.' Drifting into the right lane, he realized that he 'can't get back to the left.' 'So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I'll just pull over,' he said. 'So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I'm on to the right. But when I'm speeding up to turn, I can't stop. The wheel wasn't responding to me — as if I wasn't in the car.' Read more: Alijah Arenas out of coma, shows 'significant signs of progress' after Cybertruck crash The Cybertruck careened instead into a fire hydrant, then a tree, before bursting into flames. Minutes felt like hours as he tried to escape the smoldering car. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Arenas did whatever he could to stay alert. He bit his lip as hard as he could and clenched his nails into his skin. He doused himself with water from a water bottle to cool his body down. He tried to make as much noise as possible, yelling and banging on the glass. But the flames were getting hotter, the smoke getting thicker. 'I'm panicking,' Arenas said. 'I was fighting time.' He set out to break a window, knowing Cybertruck windows are meant to be 'unbreakable.' When his hands ached from punching the glass, he started using his feet. Then he passed out again. When he woke up, 'I realized my whole right side had caught on fire,' he said. But as he tore off his clothes and doused himself in water again, he heard a thud outside the car window. Sirens wailed in the distance. Just keep going, he told himself. He kicked at the driver's-side window with everything he had. Eventually, he spotted a crack. He kept kicking, drifting briefly out of consciousness, before the window fell away and hands began pulling him from the vehicle by his legs. The next thing he remembers feeling was a cold rush, as if he'd jumped in a freezing river. A video of the crash scene obtained by TMZ shows Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water, while the broken hydrant continues to spray into the air, after a group of good Samaritans had come to his rescue. In all, Arenas spent at least 10 minutes in the burning car before people who happened to hear the accident eventually helped pull him to safety. It's not lost on him how lucky he was. 'There are amazing people in this world that are willing to help and risk their own bodies for you,' Arenas said. 'For me, it was like, I don't ever want to think about me ever again.' The next hours and days are still hazy for Arenas, who was whisked away to a nearby hospital, then another. He was put into a medically induced coma, a common approach for dealing with extreme smoke inhalation. When he finally awoke, Arenas still couldn't speak. But right away, panic set in. He wondered if his car had hit another, or if anyone else had been hurt. Months later, he still can't bring himself to place any blame elsewhere for what happened. Even though there are no indications that Arenas was at fault for his steering wheel locking up. 'Honestly, I take full responsibility,' Arenas said. 'Whether it was me, another car, a malfunction. I don't really want to put anyone else in this situation — whoever made the car, anything. I want to take full responsibility for what I do. If I would've hurt somebody, that would have really taken a toll on me.' Read more: Alijah Arenas released from hospital, on road to full recovery, family says Arenas spent six days in the hospital after the accident but suffered no major long-term injuries. In the weeks that followed, he took walks through his family's neighborhood to regain his strength. Along the way, neighbors showered him with flowers and well wishes. Last month, the family welcomed the men who saved Arenas into their home to share their gratitude. He's still working his way toward joining USC for its summer hoops practices, with some preliminary classwork still remaining before his transition is complete. But after officially enrolling at USC last week, Arenas stood on the practice court sideline on Tuesday morning, high-fiving teammates and calling out assignments, looking every bit the part of a five-star freshman who's ready to step in from Day One. 'His perspective is really unique,' USC coach Eric Musselman said. 'Even before the accident, when you talk to Alijah, it's a unique thought process on how he views life and views the game of basketball and how he views his teammates.' But there's no mistaking, in Arenas' mind, how fortunate he is to have survived — and how many things had to go right for that to be the case. He's convinced he was spared to help someone else in the same way he was helped. 'It taught me a lot,' Arenas said. 'I'm very lucky — and not even just to be here. Just in general, in life.' Sign up for more USC news with Times of Troy. In your inbox every Monday morning. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
24-06-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
‘I'm panicking.' USC's Alijah Arenas recounts harrowing escape from Cybertruck crash
When Alijah Arenas opened his eyes, minutes after his Tesla Cybertruck struck a tree one morning this past April, the five-star Chatsworth High hoops phenom wasn't sure where he was or how he'd gotten there. His initial, disoriented thought was he'd woken up at home. But as he regained consciousness, Arena felt the seat belt wrapped tightly around his waist. He noticed the Life360 app on his phone, beeping. Outside of the car, he could hear crackling sounds, like a campfire. Then he felt the heat like a sauna cranked to its highest setting. The passenger side of the dashboard, Arenas could see, was already engulfed in flames. Smoke was filling the car's front cabin. He could no longer see out of the windows. Arenas reached for his iPhone, intent on using his digital key to escape, only to find the Tesla app had locked him out. Panic started to set in. 'I tried to open the door,' Arenas said, 'and the door isn't opening.' He tore off his seatbelt and moved to the backseat, away from the smoke, scanning the car desperately for an exit strategy. His heart was pounding. The heat was becoming unbearable. Then, he passed out. No more than 10 minutes earlier — and less than two miles up Corbin Avenue — Arenas had just wrapped up a pre-dawn workout at The DSTRKT, a gym in Chatsworth, where he'd been working his way up to 10,000 shots that week. One of the top hoops prospects in Southern California, Arenas was weeks away from graduating from Chatsworth High after three years with the intention of joining USC a year early in 2025. He was doing everything he could to prepare for that extraordinary leap. He was on his way home from the gym, driving south on Corbin like he had so many times before, when Arenas noticed that the Cybertruck — which is registered to his father, former NBA star Gilbert Arenas — was acting strangely. The car wasn't reading that he left the gym. The keypad kept flickering on and off. After stopping at one red light, he tried to switch lanes, only to notice that 'the wheel wasn't moving as easily as it should.' Drifting into the right lane, he realized that he 'can't get back to the left.' 'So then a car is coming towards me, and I think that I'll just pull over,' he said. 'So I speed up to pull over to the right in a neighborhood because there are cars parked on the street I'm on to the right. But when I'm speeding up to turn, I can't stop. The wheel wasn't responding to me — as if I wasn't in the car.' The Cybertruck careened instead into a fire hydrant, then a tree, before bursting into flames. Minutes felt like hours as he tried to escape the smoldering car. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Arenas did whatever he could to stay alert. He bit his lip as hard as he could and clenched his nails into his skin. He doused himself with water from a water bottle to cool his body down. He tried to make as much noise as possible, yelling and banging on the glass. But the flames were getting hotter, the smoke getting thicker. 'I'm panicking,' Arenas said. 'I was fighting time.' He set out to break a window, knowing Cybertruck windows are meant to be 'unbreakable.' When his hands ached from punching the glass, he started using his feet. Then he passed out again. When he woke up, 'I realized my whole right side had caught on fire,' he said. But as he tore off his clothes and doused himself in water again, he heard a thud outside the car window. Sirens wailed in the distance. Just keep going, he told himself. He kicked at the driver's side window with everything he had. Eventually, he spotted a crack. He kept kicking, drifting briefly out of consciousness, before the window fell away and hands began pulling him from the vehicle by his legs. The next thing he remembers feeling was a cold rush, as if he'd jumped in a freezing river. A video of the crash scene obtained by TMZ shows Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water, while the broken hydrant continues to spray into the air, after a group of good Samaritans had come to his rescue. In all, Arenas spent at least 10 minutes in the burning car before people who happened to hear the accident eventually helped pull him to safety. It's not lost on him how lucky he was. 'There are amazing people in this world that are willing to help and risk their own bodies for you,' Arenas said. 'For me, it was like, I don't ever want to think about me ever again.' The next hours and days are still hazy for Arenas, who was whisked away to a nearby hospital, then another. He was put into a medically induced coma, a common approach for dealing with extreme smoke inhalation. When he finally awoke, Arenas still couldn't speak. But right away, panic set in. He wondered if his car had hit another, or if anyone else had been hurt. Months later, he still can't bring himself to place any blame elsewhere for what happened. Even though there are no indications that Arenas was at fault for his steering wheel locking up. 'Honestly, I take full responsibility,' Arenas said. 'Whether it was me, another car, a malfunction. I don't really want to put anyone else in this situation – whoever made the car, anything. I want to take full responsibility for what I do. If I would've hurt somebody, that would have really taken a toll on me.' Arenas spent six days in the hospital after the accident, but suffered no major long-term injuries. In the weeks that followed, he took walks through his family's neighborhood to regain his strength. Along the way, neighbors showered him with flowers and well wishes. Last month, the family welcomed the men who saved Arenas into their home to share their gratitude. He's still working his way toward joining USC for its summer hoops practices, with some preliminary classwork still remaining before his transition is complete. But after officially enrolling at USC last week, Arenas stood on the practice court sideline on Tuesday morning, high-fiving teammates and calling out assignments, looking every bit the part of a five-star freshman who's ready to step in from Day 1. 'His perspective is really unique,' USC coach Eric Musselman said. 'Even before the accident, when you talk to Alijah, it's a unique thought process on how he views life and views the game of basketball and how he views his teammates.' But there's no mistaking, in Arenas' mind, how fortunate he is to have survived — and how many things had to go right for that to be the case. He's convinced he was spared to help someone else in the same way he was helped. 'It taught me a lot,' Arenas said. 'I'm very lucky — and not even just to be here. Just in general, in life.'
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Alijah Arenas 'doing much better' but remains hospitalized after Cybertruck crash
Four days after he was involved in a serious Cybertruck accident that led to him being put into an induced coma, top basketball prospect Alijah Arenas is walking and talking and expected to be discharged from the hospital 'very soon," according to the co-host of his father's podcast, "Gil's Arena." Arenas, according to Josiah Johnson of the 'Gil's Arena' podcast, sustained no major injuries in the single-car accident and is 'doing much better.' Advertisement Arenas lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck just before 5 a.m. PDT Thursday as he was returning from the gym, according to Johnson. The car struck a fire hydrant and a tree on Corbin Avenue in Reseda and caught fire with Arenas inside. Read more: Alijah Arenas out of coma, shows 'significant signs of progress' after Cybertruck crash The family said 'brave individuals' helped rescue Arenas from the burning vehicle. One told the family that they heard 'banging on the car window, but I couldn't see anything because the smoke was so thick.' But onlookers were able to pull him out of the car. 'This act of courage, along with Alijah's incredible will to survive, has been nothing short of miraculous,' the family said in a statement Friday. Advertisement Arenas was deemed 'stable' at the scene, according to LAPD officer Rosario Cervantes. At the hospital, he was placed in an induced coma 'as a result of smoke inhalation,' Johnson said. Arenas was still intubated the following day but was able to open his eyes and communicate via writing. Chatsworth High coach Sam Harris also told The Times that Arenas was 'doing much better each day." Arenas, a top-10 prospect nationally and the crown jewel of USC's 2025 recruiting class, is the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas. Last month, Arenas led Chatsworth to the CIF state championship game. He leaves the school as the City Section's all-time leading scorer, with more than 3,000 points. Advertisement Arenas, who has yet to officially join USC, was expected to play a significant role for the Trojans next season as a freshman. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
28-04-2025
- Automotive
- Los Angeles Times
Alijah Arenas ‘doing much better' but remains hospitalized after Cybertruck crash
Four days after he was involved in a serious Cybertruck accident that left him in an induced coma, top basketball prospect Alijah Arenas is walking and talking and expected to be discharged from the hospital 'very soon,' according to the co-host of his father's podcast, Gil's Arena. Arenas, according to Josiah Johnson of the 'Gil's Arena' podcast, sustained no major injuries in the single-car accident and is 'doing much better'. Arenas lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck just before 5 a.m. PDT Thursday as he was returning from the gym, according to Johnson. The car struck a fire hydrant and a tree on Corbin Ave. in Reseda and caught fire with Arenas inside. The family said 'brave individuals' helped rescue Arenas from the burning vehicle. One told the family that they heard 'banging on the car window, but I couldn't see anything because the smoke was so thick.' But onlookers were able to pull him out of the car. 'This act of courage, along with Alijah's incredible will to survive, has been nothing short of miraculous,' the family said in a statement Friday. Arenas was deemed 'stable' at the scene, according to LAPD officer Rosario Cervantes. At the hospital, he was placed in an induced coma 'as a result of smoke inhalation,' Johnson said. Arenas was still intubated the following day, but was able to open his eyes and communicate via writing. Chatsworth High coach Sam Harris also told The Times that Arenas was 'doing much better each day.' Arenas, a top-10 prospect nationally and the crown jewel of USC's 2025 recruiting class, is the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas. Last month, Arenas led Chatsworth to the CIF state championship game. He leaves the school as the City Section's all-time leading scorer, with more than 3,000 points. Arenas, who has yet to officially join USC, was expected to play a significant role for the Trojans next season as a freshman.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Alijah Arenas out of coma, shows 'significant signs of progress' after Cybertruck crash
Alijah Arenas, a top USC recruit and Chatsworth High basketball star, awoke from his coma after a serious Cybertruck crash early Thursday morning and has 'shown significant signs of progress,' according to a statement from his family shared with The Times. Arenas remains intubated, but the son of former NBA player Gilbert Arenas opened his eyes and was able to communicate by writing on a piece of paper. Advertisement 'He remembered the smoke,' the statement read, and asked, 'Did anyone get hurt?' Alijah Arenas lost control of his Tesla Cybertruck shortly before 5 a.m. Thursday morning, striking a fire hydrant and tree. The mangled car caught fire while Arenas was still inside. Arenas was the only person injured during the crash. The family said Friday that 'brave individuals' helped rescue Arenas from the burning vehicle. A person who assisted Arenas recalled hearing 'banging on the car window, but I couldn't see anything because the smoke was so thick,' the family statement read. "That's when I realized someone was inside. I tried to break the window, but it wouldn't give. Then I saw one of the windows was cracked just enough and we used everything we had to bend it to pull him out. The car was on fire. We just knew we had to get him out." The family commended "this act of courage, along with Alijah's incredible will to survive," calling it "nothing short of miraculous.' Advertisement A video of the early-morning, post-crash scene, obtained by TMZ, showed Arenas lying face down in the street in a few inches of water while the broken hydrant sprayed water into the air. In the background, a person shouts at Arenas repeatedly to 'wake up.' Arenas was 'stable' upon being taken to the hospital, according to LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes. He was intubated and placed in a medically induced coma, which is a common step in treating severe smoke inhalation. Drugs and alcohol were not suspected to be a factor in the crash, a source with knowledge of the crash investigation told The Times. Read more: USC recruit Alijah Arenas, son of Gilbert Arenas, in coma after Cybertruck crash Advertisement Hours after the collision, the Cybertruck burst into flames again at a nearby tow yard, a person with knowledge of the incident not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times. Arenas was joined at the hospital by his mother, Laura Govan; father, Gilbert Arenas; siblings; and extended family. "The family continues to ask for the public's prayers and support as their miracle baby fights his way back to full recovery," the statement read, going on to thank Alijah Arenas' medical team for "exceptional care." Arenas is expected to play a major role next season at USC as a freshman. Advertisement Trojans coach Eric Musselman said in a statement posted on social media Thursday that 'our thoughts and prayers are with Alijah and his family following this morning's accident. Please keep him, his teammates and friends, and the entire Arenas family in your prayers.' Chatsworth students had the day off from school Thursday in observance of Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
