Photo: NTSB
Tesla’s vehicles are considered highly safe, especially with the use of the company’s crash lab for testing real-world scenarios, though driver-caused accidents are still not unheard of.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that a Tesla Model 3 crash that ended fatally in Coral Gables, Florida, was speeding before crashing into two trees and catching on fire, according to a report from the agency (via Reuters).
The accident took place on a residential street, where the posted speed limit was 30 miles per hour, resulting in the deaths of a 19-year-old passenger and a 20-year-old driver.
Tesla Q2 2021 Vehicle Safety Report: Autopilot Accidents Decrease https://t.co/T2euXzrhRB
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) October 1, 2021
The maximum recorded vehicle speed prior to the September 13 crash was 90 mph, according to the NTSB while referencing the vehicle’s event data recorder (EDR). After repairing and moving the data chip to another EDR, the NTSB found that “preliminary evaluation of the data indicated that application of the accelerator pedal ranged from 0 to 100%, the service brake remained off.”
Following the accident, the vehicle was totaled by the fire, which the NTSB said, “firefighters faced challenges in extinguishing the fire and reported that the vehicle’s batteries reignited at least once.”
