Vehicle Fire Claims Driver Of Speeding Electric Vehicle
Independent automaker, Tesla, may be facing additional headaches after a driver of a Tesla Model S was killed when his car crashed near Fort Lauderdale and caught fire.
The Orlando Sentinel reports that the accident happened on February 24th at approximately 4:30 p.m. Investigators say that the car the car had been traveling between 75 -90 mph in the 1300 block of Flamingo Road when it left the roadway, went across three lanes, struck a median and then crashed into a clump of trees. The vehicle then caught fire.
Emergency crews arrived at the scene and found the vehicle completely engulfed in flames. A spokesperson for the Davie Police Department, Sergeant Mark Leone, said in a statement on Monday morning, “Efforts to extract the driver were unsuccessful.”
The victim has been identified Omar Awan.
Authorities believe that the severity of the crash and fire were caused by the battery pack having been ruptured in the crash. Firefighters repeatedly had attempted to put out the fire only to have it restart again, even after it was towed.
According to Davie Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Robert Diferdinando, this is mainly due to the size of the battery which nearly expands the entire undercarriage of the vehicle. If the battery still has power, Diferdinando explained, it will continue to have the potential to ignite secondary fires.
The crash is still currently under investigation.