Foremost Group chief executive Angela Chao was under the influence of alcohol when she accidentally drove her car into a pond on a Texas ranch last month and drowned, according to a police report made public on Wednesday.
Details of the report by the Blanco County Sheriff’s office in Texas were cited by the New York Times and several other major media outlets in the US. The document called the events “an unfortunate accident”.
Chao, 50, was pronounced dead in the early morning of 11 February after she had inadvertently driven her Tesla in reverse into the pond on a family ranch in Johnson City, which is west of her home in Austin. She had just left dinner with friends at a guest lodge on the ranch.
According to the report, a toxicology test determined Chao had a blood-alcohol level of 0.233 grammes per 100 millilitres, nearly triple the legal limit in Texas of .08 grammes.
A friend told investigators Chao was able to call her from the sinking car and said she could not get free as the water rose.
Chao told her “she was going to die and said, ‘I love you’,” during the eight-minute conversation, according to the Times account.
Chao led the family shipping company founded by her father and was a leading voice in the US shipping industry.
She had led the bulker owner for six years, after taking the helm from founder James Chao in 2018.
As TradeWinds reported on 14 February, James Chao is coming out of retirement at age 96 to lead the New York company as chair, while former Foremost president Michael Lee will return to that role and serve as chief operating officer, a spokesman for the company said.
One of the reasons Angela Chao’s death is being followed so closely in the US media is that her older sister, Elaine Chao, is married to US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Elaine Chao served as transportation secretary under Donald Trump and labour secretary under George W Bush.
