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All these Model S-crashes did NOT result in a fire

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Right_Said_Fred

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May 11, 2012
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After all this focus on the three fires, it's important not to forget how safe the Model S is. There have been many crashes already, many pretty serious, and in most cases there has been no fire at all. And as fas as I can tell there has not been any serious injury yet. In case of a crash I wouldn't want to be in any other car than a Model S.

Here's a lot of crashes that did NOT result in a fire, nor serious injuries for the occupants of the Model S. In one case unfortunately the two occupants of another car died.

I hope the Tesla-owners involved in these crashes, including several forum members, do not mind me posting these pictures to prove how safe the Model S is.

At the end there is the recent clip of a Model S driving over big pieces of a concrete barrier - talk of road debris - and doing just fine.

(P.S. I wasn't able to remove the last picture, which is too big, but keeps on coming back as an attachment after removal) [Moderator: Fixed it for you]


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Can a moderator change the title from 'crashed' to 'crashes'? Thanks :rolleyes:
 
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Nicely assembled, Right_Said_Fred. This is the statistical reality that needs to get out: not every crash leads to a fire. The sensationalist media would have you believe the opposite. Only very odd circumstances where something wallops the underside of the pack has *sometimes* caused a fire...twice out of how many such incidents, one wonders. Several folks here on TMC have driven over bad objects with no such result (though I believe one pack was replaced as a precautionary measure).
 
This thread is a little painful to look at... all those lovely Model Ses, and probably all totaled...

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Well, except for the one who drove over the wreckage from the crashed big rig. That guy impresses me with his driving skills. Have we found out who it was?
 
For completeness, and for the whole picture: This one has been posted above:

tesla_vs_honda_back.jpg

Image credit: Unknown.

But this hasn’t. Here’s what the front of this car looked like:

tesla_vs_honda_front.jpg

Original source: Tesla head on collision with a Honda (Pictures in post #159.)

And here’s some info about this accident, with a picture of the other car:

Accident occurred Tuesday 4/2/2013 around 6:40am on Laguna Canyon Road between El Toro Road and State Route 73 in Laguna Beach, California. Head on collision between a Honda Accord and a Tesla Model S. The two occupants of the Honda were killed. The lone occupant of the Tesla sustained minor injuries.

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Head-on collision in Laguna Beach kills 2, closes road - latimes.com

There was a third car involved, a Mercedes. "The two cars were supposedly passing the light at El Toro going north where the road has two northbound lanes for a couple hundred feet before the right lane is supposed to merge into the left lane. They took off and it sounds like the Telsa and Mercedes both wanted to not allow each other to merge into the left lane with the Tesla possibly then driving in the center divider area for another few hundred feet before the center divider ends and forced him into the on coming lane."
Please help keep this summary up-to-date and accurate as we learn more.


Source: Tesla head on collision with a Honda
 
Another one:

As a reminder this is the pipe with a welded steel pivoting bracket that Dr Computer ran over with no battery issues as a result. Bent rims, a gouge in his suspension, and a scratch in the battery. This thing probably weighs 80 pounds and it was not just sitting there but flying, spinning, and bouncing as the car went over it. It's just dumb luck when it comes to this stuff.

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[First posted here: Ugh. Another Model S fire - 2013-11-06 - Page 74

The original images have been compressed to reduce size. Some might also have been rotated, and two have been cropped. And one or two might have increased in pixel-size somewhat in order to align with the others. (My edit.)]


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And one more:

As a point of interest, here's the result of a tow hook impact on a MS that resulted in significant battery damage, but no fire. The battery had to be replaced.

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The driver did manage to get a picture of the tow hook itself:

culprit_c.jpg


These are from the MS owners forums http://www.teslamotors.com/forum/forums/damaged-my-85-kw-battery-object-road

/...


[First posted here:Ugh. Another Model S fire - 2013-11-06 - Page 55

The pictures have been compressed to reduce size. The second one has also been slightly cropped and also reduced in pixel-size (My edit.)]
 
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There is a car fire every 96 seconds in USA and only TESLA gets the attention it is getting. Please see
National Vehicle Fire Statistics | Chandler Law Group

Nice reference. Let's take a stab at scaling that to Teslas. I will use a rough number of Teslas on the road as 20,000 (Roadsters and Model S's). From Passenger vehicles in the United States - Wikipedia it looks like there are about 250 million automobiles in the U.S.

If Teslas had fires at the same rate as all automobiles, then the average time between Tesla fires should be:

96 seconds x 250,000,000 / 20,000 = 1,200,000 seconds or 13.88 days​

It seems like we are having Tesla fires at a rate of less than 2 per month...That would mean that the rate of Tesla fires is less than the average automobile. Please remember that even though we can calculate average rates, they probably have a Poisson distribution, which has a lot of variance. As some would say, "Its not one fire every 14 days, its a 1/14 chance of a fire each day."

Does this make sense?
 
To really do this right we would need to isolate the car fires which are caused by an impact and not mechanical failures. While it is an important point that Teslas lack the the belts and parts prone to fire, impacts resulting in fire are the scenario we should focus on.

I might have to nerd out on some data if I can find the time...




Nice reference. Let's take a stab at scaling that to Teslas. I will use a rough number of Teslas on the road as 20,000 (Roadsters and Model S's). From Passenger vehicles in the United States - Wikipedia it looks like there are about 250 million automobiles in the U.S.

If Teslas had fires at the same rate as all automobiles, then the average time between Tesla fires should be:

96 seconds x 250,000,000 / 20,000 = 1,200,000 seconds or 13.88 days​

It seems like we are having Tesla fires at a rate of less than 2 per month...That would mean that the rate of Tesla fires is less than the average automobile. Please remember that even though we can calculate average rates, they probably have a Poisson distribution, which has a lot of variance. As some would say, "Its not one fire every 14 days, its a 1/14 chance of a fire each day."

Does this make sense?
 
You should probably also include the fact that there have been many incidents of a Model S being flooded (in particular, Miami incident where half-dozen Tesla Model S' were brought into SC due to freak flood) and none of which resulted in any fire. whereas when a fisker karma gets flooded, it shorts out and burns to the ground.

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/17699-Bad-experience-with-flood-waters

http://www.topspeed.com/cars/car-ne...-burn-following-hurricane-sandy-ar137485.html

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/16-fisker-karma-cars-explode-and-burn-during-superstorm-sandy.html
 
I was stuck in traffic yesterday afternoon and saw a wall of billowing black flame ahead. An ICE was smoking and had its front on fire. Like a lot of fire. As I was driving cautiously past, something else in the front exploded and more fire spewed out the side. I felt like I was in a Michael Bay movie.

It's funny how much attention Tesla gets for their so called car fires when in LA, you see an ICE on fire every other week if you're on the freeway enough.
 
To me, the thing to take away is how little cabin intrusion there is even in the worst collisions. I'm always amazed when I find Mercedes-Benzs in the junkyard, even the hardest collisions seem to leave a very pristine interior cabin and doors that still open. The Tesla looks like it's even another leap beyond that.