The Tesla lost control with five people in the car which hit a guard rail and concrete pillar before bursting into flames.
Reported in Canada, The accident occurred last week on Thursday in the Lake Shore Boulevard East and Cherry Street area of Toronto city, police said in a press release.
“We have gathered some evidence so far to suggest that speed was a factor,” Toronto Police Duty Inspector Phillip Sinclair was quoted as saying by the Toronto Sun newspaper.
Four of the car occupants were pronounced dead on the scene by the police officials responding to the accident, the press release said. The fifth occupant, a 25-year-old woman, was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
She was rescued by a passing motorist who stopped to help, according to the report.
Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop told CTV News that the intensity of the fire was “directly linked” to the battery cells in the Tesla and noted that “thermal runaway” has been a growing concern with lithium-ion-powered devices.
“I will say we had to take extra care this morning in reopening the Lake Shore with the assistance of Toronto Police and removing and transporting one of the battery packs that was ejected during the collision,” CTV quoted the official as saying.
Lithium-ion battery packs have been known to reignite, even weeks after an initial fire, he said, noting that the fire service has been paying increasing attention to the issue.
The acceleration on EVs plus the fire generated from a punctured lithium-ion battery is a major safety concert and one that we as a society has largely ignored.
As we’ve reported earlier, the UK parliament has rubbished claims of fires and we’ve reported concurrent incidences of fires involving electric vehicles.
This is just one incident that a Tesla lost control. Imagine a fleet of Teslas driven by lead-footed wanna-be racers in Malaysia, the country with one of the highest accident rates in the world.
We hope the authorities address the risk of battery powered cars as the amount of EVs on the road proliferates and the likelihood for more accidents increases.
