Tesla Burns and Explodes
 

Crashed Tesla explodes into a massive fireball

After crashing into a tree, a Tesla Model S violently burst into flames causing cells from its lithium-ion battery to explode.

The video above shows parts of the batteries, which can burn for up to 24 hours, bursting into flames after the crash and shooting into the air like fireworks. The single-vehicle crash, which killed the driver and a passenger, occurred Thursday morning in Indianapolis, WTHR reported.

In a press conference following the accident, Indianapolis Fire Department Battalion Chief Kevin Jones explained that although he and his team have been trained on how to respond to fires in hybrid or electrical vehicles, fires related to high-voltage lithium-ion batteries require "copious amounts of water" to extinguish and burn at an extremely high temperature.

Jones described the scene of the fatal crash, noting debris and battery cells were strewed approximately 100 feet in each direction.

"Some of those smaller cells that had broken apart began firing off almost like projectiles around the rescuers," Jones said, before he noted he had not seen anything of this magnitude before.

Jones explained that the accident occurred after the driver lost control of the vehicle while driving at a high speed. He also made it clear that large fires following high-speed crashes are not unique to electric vehicles.

“If you have collisions at high rates of speed with impacts like that, regardless if it’s a traditional power vehicle via gasoline or hybrid or all electric, you can see a fire in a vehicle like that or severe damage," Jones said. "And so to say it was simply because it was an electric vehicle, you can’t say that because we’ve seen collisions that are non-electric vehicles with just as bad of damage or fire.”

Well, that left a pretty large carbon footprint..... So much for saving the world with their electric car.

So much for worlds safest car.

Damn. That's a hell of a crash and burn.

Conventional cars can certainly burn violently after a big accident. I spent years litigating fuel fire cars. Typically those involve rear end hits since that's where the fuel tank usually is. I never saw a fuel fire from a frontal impact.

This is nothing. Wait'll you see what the roof panels can do.

Nothing to see here. Cars (gas or electric) crash and burn all the time.

There is a lot of energy stored in there, and it needs a lot careful charge/discharge management to prevent fires. I am surprised fires are not more common.

I was fiddling with a smaller new battery pack at work (non-Tesla) and it was very easy to get it smoking. The design of the individual batteries makes it pretty easy to create a short circuit. As a result we are implementing some new fire control procedures.

I've seen plenty of them. Although they do not normally occur.


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A beautiful woman, 25, died in the crash. They couldn't get her out for an hour because of the flames.

25...bloody hell. That is too young. very sad.

I hate it when golf carts explode.

Didn't two people, including a well known actor, die when their car hit a tree and burst into flames?

IIRC, that car might have been gas powered.

In a case where an explosion blows debris 100 feet away I don't think the location of the battery (or a gas tank) within the vehicle really makes any difference.

Sad to hear about the loss of life.

The issue is the length of time it burns and ability to put the fire out once it starts.

I'm working with an insurance company on placing a 180kW li-ion battery system in a building. They are balking at putting it in there at all. They would prefer it in an unattached outbuilding.

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Another tree takes a life, when will the madness end?

Fire was not unique to being electric, but that continuous fireworks display was.

So if it was an ugly old lady it would be no big deal?

What about some really ugly fat dude that was 16?

Hey GH85 carrera, go f**k yourself. I'm just stating that 2 people lost their lives, both were up and coming members of the community.

I know this is off topic, and only a guess, but the time of the accident (1am), leaving a work/social function, and the speed/loss of control all make me think the biggest contributor to their deaths (both died) was alcohol. But this is only speculation on my part.

Yo brother, how about you edit out that last sentence. WAY over the top.

Good point, I did. But I was saddened by the loss of a friend with so much life left.

We're cool. Removed the quote.

https://s.hdnux.com/photos/72/22/35/.../3/920x920.jpg

https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/NTSB-probing-fiery-fatal-crash-of-Tesla-on-12785020.php

Hell yes it was and the driving dude was an A-Hole.

Who cares what the batteries do when hitting a tree at 77 MPH.

This is teenage shiet.

Fu*k anyone that says Tesla is at fault.

Pretty much. Who thinks those charred spots next to the highway are all from electric cars?

Well, isn't that nice. Thing is, I don't think that anyone is claiming that Tesla is at fault. Seems I read someone questioning the Tesla claim of The safest car but must have skimmed over someone claiming this was Tesla's fault.

Like this ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZDVqhWGILA

And the hits keep on coming

NTSB to probe fiery Tesla crash in California | Fox News

I hear those things are fast. And quick as sin. I would have expected less of that car to be intact, given the rhetoric involved.

That’s it, trees and alcohol should be banned. Can we find someone to draft a bill?

Tragic, driven differently they'd of gotten where they were going safely.

I am Shocked!

I'm not counting him out. Too many people "invested" in his success. I thought Amazon was way over-priced and I think Facebook is overpriced....SmileWavy

But they need to stop messing around with "innovation" and get the basic car production system going.

The real issue, what happens when Ford or VW come out with a competitive product for half the price? One of my buddies in the Tech sector in San Francisco said you can't compare them, since owning a Tesla says more about you and your status. People pay EXTRA for a BMW and Mercedes when a Lincoln is "just as nice".

As the Zen Master said: "We shall see..."

Musk needs all that "innovation" BS to keep people distracted while he's burning through their cash. He says he'll make 2,500 per week by end of first quarter. Bloomberg estimates he's making less than half that- the cash is going fast and the built cars apparently have a lot of "issues".

At this point I wouldn't count him out either- but OTOH I'm not buying any tickets to Mars.

"since owning a Tesla says more about you and your status". That rose will fade. Remember the Hummer?

So you're thinking that Ford or VW wants to lose 4 Billion on a 100k cars? :cool:

Seriously tho' I have seen 2 'cheap' model 3's on the road.

I do wonder how much Tesla is losing on those. I mean, compared to their loses on those $100k+ Model-S'

Clearly Musk is having A LOT of fun with OPM. He's not serious about anything but pop and sizzle.

Its a shame about those who died in this accident.

The accident and subsequent fire were most likely because of driver error, not the car. The fatal outcome would have been similar if they were on a motorcycle (less the fire). People die on motorbikes every day but these incidents don't get the same media attention.

Looks like the Teslas are a modern day high tech Pinto.

1978
Fatal Ford Pinto crash in Indiana

On this day in 1978, three teenage girls die after their 1973 Ford Pinto is rammed from behind by a van and bursts into flames on an Indiana highway. The fatal crash was one of a series of Pinto accidents that caused a national scandal during the 1970s.

The small and economical Pinto, which debuted in 1970, was Ford’s first subcompact car produced domestically, and its answer to popular imports like the Volkswagen Beetle and the Toyota Corolla. Lee Iacocca, then an executive vice president at Ford and later to earn fame as head of Chrysler, spearheaded the Pinto’s development. Initial reviews of the Pinto’s handling and performance were largely positive, and sales remained strong, with Ford introducing new Pinto models such as the Runabout and the Sprint over the course of the early 1970s.

By 1974, however, rumors began to surface in- and outside the company about the Pinto’s tendency to catch fire in rear-end collisions. In May 1972, a California woman was killed when her Pinto caught fire after being rear-ended on a highway. Her passenger, Richard Grimshaw, was burned over 90 percent of his body but survived; he sued Ford for damages. Grimshaw’s lawyer found that the Pinto’s gas tank sat behind the rear axle, where it was particularly vulnerable to damage by rear-end collisions. He also uncovered evidence that Ford had known about this weakness ever since the Pinto first went on sale, and had done nothing about it, mostly because changing the design would have been too costly. An article in Mother Jones magazine in the fall of 1977 exposed the Pinto safety concerns to a national audience, and a California jury’s award of $128 million to Grimshaw in February 1978 spread the news still further. That June, Ford voluntarily recalled all 1.9 million 1971-1976 Pintos and 1975-1976 Mercury Bobcats (which had the same fuel-tank design).

As Douglas Brinkley wrote in “Wheels for the World,” his history of Ford, the Ehrlich girls, who died in the rear-end collision in Indiana on August 8, 1978, were apparently unaware of the Pinto-related dangers; their family would not receive a recall notice until early 1979. A grand jury later returned indictments against Ford on three counts of reckless homicide in the Ehrlich case, marking the first time in history that a corporation had been charged with murder. Ford claimed that the Pinto’s fuel-tank design was the same as other subcompacts, and that the company had done everything possible to comply with the recall once it had been enacted. Due to a lack of evidence, the jury found Ford not guilty in that case. A California appeals court upheld the Grimshaw victory, however, ordering Ford to pay $6.6 million and stating that the company’s “institutional mentality was shown to be one of callous indifference to public safety.”

...yep, they would HAVE... :) (of???)

Are gas tanks still located under the front seats ?