USC commit Alijah Arenas recalls Cybertruck crash that left him in a coma: ‘I was trying to fight time'
Roughly two months after he was involved in a car crash and placed into a medically induced coma , USC basketball recruit Alijah Arenas is opening up about his horrifying experience.
Arenas crashed his Tesla Cybertruck into a tree in Southern California while on his way back from the gym early on April 24. He lost control of the vehicle, crashed into a fire hydrant and slammed into a tree.
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Arenas said Tuesday that, after waking up about three minutes after crashing, he started to panic when he realized that smoke was filling the car and he couldn't get the doors open. The Cybertruck's keypad and steering wheel weren't responding properly, and he couldn't unlock the car manually or through the Tesla app on his phone. The front dashboard, he added, was on fire too.
'I woke up to something I've never been in before,' he said, via InsideTroy. 'I've never been in a car that was hot, it felt like a really hot sauna.'
Eventually, Arenas moved to the back seat and tried to break the window. He passed out briefly in the back seat, but woke up about 30 seconds later. Arenas later poured water on himself to try and cool his body down. Eventually, after nearly 10 minutes in the burning car, Arenas broke through the driver's side window with help from others who had rushed in to help him and he escaped.
'I was trying to fight time the whole time in the car,' he said.
Arenas was deemed stable at the scene, but he was taken to a local hospital and eventually placed into a medically induced coma due to smoke inhalation. He ended up spending six days in the hospital, but avoided major injuries.
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Arenas, the son of former Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, is a five-star Rivals.com USC commit. The 6-foot-6 guard played at Chatsworth High School in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. He helped lead the school to the CIF Division II state title game in March, and he left the school as the all-time City Section scoring leader. He had offers from Kansas and Kentucky, among others, before landing at USC.
Arenas said when he first woke up that he was worried that he had hit somebody else. His parents said the first thing he did when he woke up in the hospital was write on a piece of paper and ask, 'Did anyone get hurt?'
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Thankfully, nobody else was involved.
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