Of course any vehicle that hits a guardrail at 70 or 80 mph is likely to be written off, but it may not have been the impact alone that resulted in the casualties. A Toronto FD inspector said "the vehicle lost control, struck a guardrail and then struck a concrete pillar. Upon impact, the vehicle then caught fire." And yes, it was a Tesla.
When firefighters arrived on scene, they discover a "significant fire", said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop. "Our crews worked to quickly extinguish the fire and then, once the fire was extinguished, our crews noted a number of persons inside the vehicle. Under the direction of the coroner's office and the Toronto Police Service, Toronto firefighters carefully extricated the bodies, and they are now in the care of the Office of the Chief Coroner."
Images like the one above showed the charred and crumpled vehicle being hauled away from the site of the crash. Chief Jessop went on to say 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.
He explained that lithium-ion battery packs have been known to reignite, even weeks after an initial fire, so "we had to take extra care this morning in reopening the Lakeshore...and removing and transporting one of the battery packs that was ejected during the collision. We worked with Transportation Services, Solid Waste and Parks and Recreation to arrange for a dumpster to arrive where the Toronto Fire Service placed the ejected cell into the dumpster, covered it with sand, and we have escorted that that dumpster up to a yard to make sure that it is safely disposed of."
Walt is happy to see Elon Musk working assiduously for the re-election of President Trump [Good on yer, sir! Ed.] but that doesn't mean you should go out and buy one of his (or anybody's) sparky cars.
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