Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Less than a month after the latest incident involving a Tesla, when a Model S spontaneously burst into flames in France during a European "electric road trip", early this morning in Baarn in the Netherlands, a 53-year old Tesla Model S driver tragically died in a crash Electrek reports. His Model S left the road and hit a tree at high speed. The vehicle caught on fire and the driver was reportedly dead by the time the firefighters were on the scene.
The tragic event has been making national news in the Netherlands since this morning. The fire was difficult to extinguish according to the firefighters. They reportedly didn’t know how to approach the vehicle without being electrocuted – leaving the body of the driver in the vehicle. Tesla dispatched technicians for help.
While initial reports are sparse, Dutch RTV NH reports the following:
“Technical Tesla employees have arrived at the scene of the accident and advise the fire department on how they can best proceed with the salvage of the body without being electrocuted.”Update: Other Dutch media reports claim that the fire originated from the batteries falling out of the broken battery pack.
As Electrek adds, the problem wasn’t due to a lack of knowledge on how to handle a crashed electric vehicle, but because of the state of the wreckage. Ronald Boer, a spokesman for the firefighters, said:
“If the car was on four wheels, the fire brigade normally has no difficulty to turn off the batteries. However, this car is completely destroyed, hampering the recovery. In this situation, you never know what can happen.”
Pictures from the scene of the crash:
Electrek also notes that while some news outlets are linking the accident to Tesla’s Autopilot system, so far there is no confirmation that the system was actually in use during the fatal crash. Nonetheless, Tesla said that it launched an investigation into the accident:
“Tesla launched a full investigation. Once the outcome is known, Tesla will share with the public.”
The Traffic Analysis (VOA) Police are also reportedly investigating the crash.
