An Auckland man who lost control of his Tesla in a crash that killed a young lawyer used his phone to search how to delete the car’s travel data before calling 111 for help.

In the moments after the crash, nearby residents scrambled to the scene to find driver Saurbh Sharma, 26, still in the upside-down vehicle that had landed in a hedge with power lines splayed around it. The vehicle began smoking and Sharma managed to crawl through a hole in the side of the car before it erupted into flames.

Sharma’s passenger and friend, Auckland barrister Shubham Kaur, known as Khushi, died in the January 4, 2022 crash in Taupiri and he was later charged with careless driving causing her death.

He is now defending that charge.

The first two days of the judge-alone trial were heard in the Huntly District Court last month and the trial resumed in the Hamilton District Court today before Judge Glen Marshall.

Detective Constable Harjot Sandhu testified how he extracted the data from Sharma’s phone and found messages he made in the months leading up to the crash and the moments straight after it.

He discovered Sharma first used the phone to search “how to delete Tesla recordings”. A Tesla vehicle automatically, and regularly, uploads its travel data to the cloud.

Auckland lawyer Shubham Kaur was killed in the crash. Photo / Supplied

Thirty-four seconds after searching for data about Tesla Sharma called 111, but it wasn’t answered.

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He then called his friend Divesh Goundar before calling his policeman brother-in-law, Jagmohan Singh, who was based in Auckland at the time.

They talked for 43 seconds.

Sandhu also analysed some of Sharma’s texts he’d made in the months leading up to the crash.

In a text exchange about the vehicle’s auto-drive feature, Sharma says “auto-drive saves life” adding in laughing emojis.

Texting another friend who asks how the Tesla is going, Sharma replies, “I have been such a rough driver ever since I have got my hands on the Tesla”.

He texts again saying, “It’s one dangerous car and a family type at the same time”.

Kaur texted him at 1.52am on November 18, 2021 asking if he got home, and he replies, “hahaha nearly f***** up”, before replying again, “was speeding for a bit, bro. That Fast and Furious shit”.

Saurbh Sharma of Auckland pictured outside the Huntly District Court last month. He is defending a charge of careless driving causing the death of Shubham Kaur, a barrister from Auckland, on Dawson Rd in Taupiri in January 2022. Photo / Belinda Feek

Kaur replied, “wtf”.

It was then Sandhu decided to call Sharma in for a formal interview.

In the DVD interview played to the court Sharma explained how it was a “normal drive, everything was happy and amazing and all of a sudden I drove over a bit of this hump”.

“That’s where I lost control of the car and I crashed,” adding that he slammed on the brakes when he felt the bottom of the car scrape on the road.

The next thing he saw were live wires around his car.

He then described a muddled series of events, in which the interview is stopped several times to give him a break.

Sharma first described crawling out of a gap in the car before dragging Kaur out “because that was a priority”.

When questioned again, he said, “I was yelling for her and she was not responding so I started dragging her”.

When pressed again by the detective, Sharma contended that he remembered unbuckling her and then she fell on top of him.

“That’s when I dragged her out.”

However, police witnesses described during the earlier hearing how Kaur’s remains were eventually discovered underneath the upturned and charred Tesla.

Earlier Sharma explained how he met Kaur at a friend’s birthday about three years ago, however they became closer after his relationship break-up in May 2021.

“She’s just a really good friend of mine. I honestly call her my travelling buddy . . . [it’s] just a common interest between us.

“She loved travelling and I did too.”

The trial continues.

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for nine years and has been a journalist for 20.