A Silicon Valley tech worker has been arrested and charged with murder after a horrific highway crash that left a young mother and her toddler burned alive inside their car.
Zachary Chernicky, 31, was allegedly driving a Tesla at more than double the speed limit when he slammed into Ivana Balistreri’s vehicle on a busy San Jose highway back in December, according to prosecutors.
The 29-year-old mom and her daughter Lilliana—who was just two days shy of her second birthday—died when their car burst into flames on impact.
Court documents claim Chernicky was going 142 miles per second roughly 15 seconds before the crash, and was still doing 102 mph when he rear-ended Balistreri’s stopped car.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen compared the deadly speed to firing a weapon.
“When someone is driving 140 mph, then the driver is the shooter and their car is the bullet,” Rosen said in a statement.
The mother and daughter were remembered by family as the heart of their family. Ivana’s sister previously told PEOPLE that her sibling was always checking in on her, pushing her to be better. Lilliana, described as a “very happy baby,” was the center of everyone’s attention.
Chernicky suffered only minor injuries in the crash. He’s now being held without bail on two counts of murder.
His next court date is scheduled for August.
What could possibly drive someone to push a vehicle to such deadly speeds on a busy highway?