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Tesla Driver Narrowly Escapes Explosion After Being Pulled Out of Burning EV

Whenever a car crash involving a Tesla makes the headlines, the vehicle's pseudo-self-driving technology tends to be the main talking point. Well, I'm not entirely sure whether the fact this Monday night incident from South Korea makes an exception is necessarily good or bad news, but one thing is certain: it had the potential to end a lot worse.
Tesla Model Y crash and fire in South Korea 12 photos
Photo: @hohocho via Twitter / YONHAP
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The battery-powered crossover was traveling down a highway in Sejong when it hit a guardrail before ricocheting into another SUV that was driving the other way. The South Korean reports don't make it clear what caused the crash - we don't know whether it was human error or a vehicle malfunction of sorts, so the FSD Beta isn't completely off the hook yet - but rather focuses on what happened afterward. We also don't know anything about the actual dynamics of the crash - what kind of speed were the two vehicles doing, at what angle did they collide, or what happened to the other vehicle and its occupant(s) are all questions worth answering.

With EVs in general, and Teslas in particular, being the safe cars we know they are, the Model Y driver reportedly only suffered a broken ankle. However, he was also seemingly trapped inside the vehicle, and with small flames starting to show up, his life was suddenly in danger despite coming away with minor injuries from the crash itself.

Passerby were quick to take the appropriate measures - calling the authorities and attempting to put out the fire using small, hand-held extinguishers. However, the latter quickly proved inefficient, so with the fire only likely to spread, those outside found themselves in a race against time to free the 36-year-old driver trapped inside the car.

Breaking the window, unbuckling the seatbelt and pulling the man out proved to be the only viable solution, and it came just in time as the Tesla "exploded spectacularly" just moments later, leaving no doubt as to what the fate of anyone inside would have been.

No fewer than 17 fire trucks and 50 firefighters were dispatched to deal with the battery fire, and, to their credit, they managed to get things under control in just under an hour and 20 minutes. Coincidentally, South Korea was the scene of another EV fire (also a Tesla, only a Model X that time) just a few hours prior to this incident. That particular blaze required an even more impressive mobilization from the firefighters with 27 vehicles and 65 personnel showing up on-site for an intervention that took nearly three hours in total.

Back to the Sejong Model Y case, apart from the broken ankle, the driver reportedly only suffered relatively mild burns on one of his legs and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The fact two Teslas caught fire in such both spatial and temporal proximity is undeniably a coincidence and shouldn't be interpreted as a growing trend. However, it's worth remembering that while EVs don't necessarily ignite more often than ICE vehicles, the chemical fire produced by the batteries does tend to be more violent, difficult to put out and, therefore, more dangerous.

Besides, in the case of internal combustion engines, the most likely area to catch fire is the engine bay, which is neatly separated from the passenger compartment. That gives occupants more time to bail out. With EVs, on the other hand, the vehicle's battery is the most likely culprit, which makes up most - if not all - of the floor under the cabin, putting the fire a lot closer to anyone inside. This is by no means an attempt to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt - for those with too little spare time to spend it on Reddit) on EV adoption, just a reminder of why, even more so than ICE cars, battery-powered vehicles should be evacuated at once at the first sign of a fire.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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