An 85-year-old man died in Houston yesterday after crashing a Tesla Model S through a brick wall and into a swimming pool. The accident happened just a week after another reported fatality in a Model S crash, which until recently was a rare occurrence.
Local news KPRC 2 reports on the accident based on the account of Ann Bolton, the sister of the passenger in the vehicle:
“Something went wrong. She said she thinks he hit the gas instead of the brake and the car went through the garage, down into the swimming pool,” said Ann Bolton.
Bolton said once the Tesla landed in the swimming pool it slowly dropped to the bottom, giving her sister time to escape through a window.
“He said, ‘Get out of the car.’ She got out of the car, trying to get him out of the car, but the way they’re made with the console and the seat belts and everything, it just didn’t happen,” Bolton said.
The 85-year-old man died at a hospital.
It’s not clear what she meant by “the way they’re made with the console and the seat belts and everything, it just didn’t happen”, but the seat belts in the Tesla Model S are like most other vehicles and same thing for the console, which is actually optional, meaning that the stock version has room between the two front seats.
This is the fifth known instance of a death following a Model S crash. All 5 under very extreme conditions:
- Driver dies after his Model S fell off a cliff in Sonoma county
- Driver dies after his Model S fell off a cliff in Malibu (note that both cases happened before Tesla implemented auto emergency steering, which could have possibly prevented these crashes assuming they didn’t intentionally drive off the cliffs)
- Car thief dies at the hospital after the Model S he was driving hit a post at over 100 mph (Los Angeles)
- Driver dies at the hospital after his Model S got hit by a dump truck in Winnipeg
- Driver dies after crashing through a brick wall and into a swimming pool in Houston.
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Can’t blame Tesla for this. Would the press written the same if it had been a Toyota? Man dies in an accident driving Toyota only days after another man dies in a accident with a Toyota….probably not.
Seems to me, most modern cars have a console of some type between the front seats. This in itself may make it difficult for a person in one seat to release the seatbelt of the person in the other seat.
This is not a Tesla issue.
Are you going to report every single electric car fatality?
Make the car waterproof!