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Aftermath of a Tesla Model S crash used as an example for firefighters [Gallery]

A Tesla Model S crashed at high-speed in the guardrails on the highway between Abensberg and Siegburg in Germany yesterday. Fortunately, the driver was reportedly (via Focus.de – German ) only “slightly injured” and her life was not in any danger.

What is particularly interesting about this crash is that the local fire department used the incident as an example of how to respond to an electric vehicle crash and even shared pictures on their website.

The Model S did not catch on fire and the driver was already freed once the firefighters arrived on the scene, so it was a perfect opportunity to take the time and explain to their colleagues how to properly handle high-voltage components:

“Since you can’t “just” remove the key from the ignition with electric vehicles, the high-voltage components had to be taken out of operation by the emergency services to ensure the safety of emergency personnel.”

The Abensberg fire department explains that it is fairly simple and that you simply need to follow the instructions on the vehicle and pay special attention to orange cables and components.

They shared a galley of pictures from yesterday’s crash on their website:

For more details, Brock Archer and Ron Moore, in partnership with Tesla, created a video to explain electric vehicles as they pertain to rescuers:

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Comments

  1. seatupgrader - 9 years ago

    if the car is a total-loss, and the seats are next-gen I am interested in buying them 🙂

    • Jon - 9 years ago

      @Tim K A Cheah Extremely lame excuse for the all-caps. If you can’t see the text, zoom in your browser, geez, don’t subject the rest of us to your dumb-ass work-around.

      • Tim K A Cheah - 9 years ago

        REGRET I AM USING A SMALL SIZE OBSOLETE MOBILE PHONE WITH NO ZOOMING FEATURE TO TYPE MY COMMENTS

  2. Tim K A Cheah - 9 years ago

    WAS THE CAR RUNNING ON AUTOPILOT WHEN THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED, AS IT SHOULD BE WHERE AS IT WAS CRUISING ON A HIGHWAY AT HIGH SPEED RIGHT??? SO HOW CAN THIS CAR WENT OUT OF CONTROL SO DOES THE AUTOPILOT SAFETY FEATURES MALFUNCTIONED FOR THIS SAID ACCIDENT TO HAVE OCCURRED RIGHT???

    • Richard Muller - 9 years ago

      No need to shout!!!!!

      • Tim K A Cheah - 9 years ago

        REGRET ALL THE CAPS, AS MY EYESIGHT IS POOR, THAT’S THE ONLY I CAN READ WHAT I TYPED TO AVOID TYPO ERRORS OK.

    • Magnus - 9 years ago

      It looks like a preAP car from the pictures so not an autopilot fault 🙂

    • MorinMoss - 9 years ago

      Use CTRL ++ to make the webpage bigger

  3. Anon - 9 years ago

    I’m glad there were only slight injuries!
    And I’m happy to see that (at least some) German emergency crews are ready for the EV revolution. Thanks, Feuerwehr Abensberg, nice job! Can’t quite say that about German car manufacturers though.

    BTW, the other city is not Siegburg, it’s Siegenburg. 🙂

  4. Tinny (@Tinny) - 9 years ago

    I thought Tesla coudn’t crash or touch anything

  5. cameroncovington - 9 years ago

    That’s so painful to see!

  6. tommyg - 9 years ago

    Tesla products are so great that the day a customer dies in a crash there will probably be some sort of recognition…. a plaque or sign or something …..like simpsons “….days since last incident”

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Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

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