Tesla Semi Fiery Accident In California Sparks NTSB Investigation

At 3:13 a.m. a Tesla Semi crashed on Interstate 80 and, for unknown reasons, it caught fire and left it unrecognizable. Now, the NTSB is going to investigate exactly what happened so that it can learn more about lithium-ion fires.

As of this writing, the cause of the accident and the fire is unknown. The section of the road where the crash happened near Nyack in the Sierra Madre mountains. Conventional combustion-powered trucks typically rely on engine braking when going downhill. The Tesla Semi is supposed to benefit from going downhill as it can use regenerative braking to recoup energy.

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We don’t know what happened at this stage. All that’s clear, for now, is that the Semi crashed first and then caught fire. Authorities closed the highway for multiple hours to handle the issue.

Seeing as the information surrounding the crash is incredibly sparse, the NTSB is sending an investigation team to figure out the details says Bloomberg. It says it’ll work hand in hand with the California Highway Patrol to achieve its goals.

While the highway was closed, authorities were working hard to control the blaze. Tesla’s Semi emergency response rescue sheet instructs to not to use water submersion to stop a fire. Granted, it wouldn’t be exactly easy to dig a hole deep enough for the semi and it would be even harder to move the truck into it.

Instead, the guide calls for rescue workers to simply douse the Semi with water until the threat of fire is over. No doubt, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection did exactly that. Video from the scene shows the authorities using air attacks to keep the blaze under control.

Firefighters also stood by the conflagration with hoses dousing it until the threat was over. The best news here is that nobody ended up injured. It’ll be interesting to see what the NTSB finds.