A serious accident in Oregon, United States, shows the collateral effects that an incident with an electric car can cause when its battery is affected. Any serious incident has dramatic consequences that sometimes affect not only the occupants of the vehicle involved.
Whether it is an internal combustion car or an electric car, serious accidents can trigger unpredictable scenarios and side effects that are difficult to predict.
In the case of the incident that occurred in Corvallis, a town located on the West coast of the United States, a driver aboard a Tesla Model 3, under the influence of narcotic substances (cannabis), was circulating over the limit of the speed at approximately 100mph according to the police report, when he completely lost control of his vehicle.
According to the report from local authorities, the Tesla Model 3 went off the road and collided violently with two trees, a light pole finally stopping it after hitting a telephone line registration box.
As a result of the impact with multiple objects, the vehicle was completely destroyed, leaving behind scattered parts on both sides of the road. During the collisions, the battery pack disintegrated, scattering the cells along the entire route until the car stopped.
Parts of the thousands of battery cells (4,416 on the Long Range AWD) that make up the Tesla Model 3 battery pack were found scattered around.
The most worrying part of the event was when the collision threw the type 2170 cells. Some of these ended up breaking the glass of two adjoining houses. One of them landed on the lap of a person inside a home, while another flew to a bed, causing a small fire in the same bedding. The Corvallis Police report explains in detail what happened:
“Damage from the collision caused the Tesla batteries to enter two different residences breaking windows, one landing on a person’s lap and the second landing on a bed, setting the bedding on fire.”
The violent accident destroyed the water pipes of an apartment building, causing a flood in a house. According to the police, “a tire came off the car during the collision and hit the siding of the second floor of a nearby apartment complex with such force that it broke the water pipes inside the wall, destroying the bathroom of the apartment and flooding the part of downstairs from the apartment. “
Despite the spectacular nature of the accident, fortunately, there were no seriously injured people, not even the driver who was found walking on foot, three blocks away from the place where the vehicle’s remains ended up. After being taken to the hospital for examination, the tests confirmed that the driver was under the influence of cannabis, after which he was charged by law enforcement with reckless driving and driving under the influence of narcotic substances, among others.
The emergency services spent more than three hours collecting the 2170 batteries scattered around and cleaning the area of debris from the electric car. Police warned residents not to touch high-voltage cells because of the dangers they can cause.
Road safety is vital to safeguard people’s lives and prevent damage to public and private property. This accident shows the dangers of unwise drivers that do not respect basic safety rules and the consequences of using narcotic substances when getting behind the wheel.
Damage to neighboring homes, unfortunately, occurs with some frequency. In November 2019, a speeding Porsche Boxster after colliding ended inside the second floor of an office building in New Jersey with a tragic result of two deaths. This shows that it does not matter if a vehicle is an internal combustion or electric; what is truly essential is prudence and safety when getting behind a car’s wheel.