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Accident at Oxnard Supercharger Site

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#21
Looking at these pictures (and some others I took) I think I see what happened. In the "before" picture, it looks like one of the Tesla supercharger cabinets is directly behind my car. I hadn't noticed it before, but it must have been the one I was using. (This explains the "Check charger power" message I got on my phone!) The truck must have veered off the road and jumped the
IMG_0731.JPG
over the guard rail some distance earlier, hit this cabinet head on, and pushed it through space 4B (on the driver's side of my car). It ended up where you see it in this picture.
 
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#22
OMG. :eek::eek::eek: You really did get lucky. Took out a High Voltage Cabinet too. And kind of funny you hadn't realize the entirety of the situation until you were looking at your photos. Can you imagine if you had been sitting in your car with that truck hitting the cabinet right behind you and sending both flying (thankfully to the right of you). The noise must have been something else. This is one Supercharger story I won't forget.

Maybe you should play the Lotto this week.

BTW looks like 4B's cable and handle laying on the ground to the right of the truck (and think I see a few small pieces of the 4B Supercharger over by the tall signage, no idea where main part of it went). Looking at the Supercharger behind you I can only see shrubs in the middle of your Supercharger, not the cable. Were you still plugged in?
 
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#23
Another shot shows me still connected when I made these photos. I was using spot 3B; the one that got obliterated (to my car's left) is 4B, and the unaffected spot to my car's right is 2B. This site has very unusual spot numbering; usually its 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc, which I've always assumed is driven by the need to keep the high current DC cable runs as short as possible.

I assume by "high voltage cabinet" you mean the supercharger electronics cabinet where the 3-phase 480V AC is converted to ~400V DC for two paired charging spots.
 
#24
ka9q said:
Another shot shows me still connected when I made these photos. I was using spot 3B; the one that got obliterated (to my car's left) is 4B, and the unaffected spot to my car's right is 2B. This site has very unusual spot numbering; usually its 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc, which I've always assumed is driven by the need to keep the high current DC cable runs as short as possible.
Click to expand...

There are more strangely numbered Superchargers, usually at sites where there were expansions. Thanks for sharing the photos and your commentary...glad both you and your car are OK.

Bruce.
 
#26
Just... wow. Amazing that the flying supercharger cabinet didn't hit your car, and glad everyone walked (or drove) away from this. :eek:

Last time I charged at Oxnard, I was in the stall occupied by that black Model S, just on the other side of the store signs. Those columns look like they must have posts sunk into the concrete, or the wind would just push the sign over, so maybe that's a safe spot to park.
 
#30
"He didn't even get a full charge!" True. I didn't notice the phone message right away, but it couldn't have been too long after I started eating at Maria's.

Here's an interesting observation. I've long known that eyewitnesses (including me) aren't very accurate, but I've had this driven home again by the number of things i didn't notice until I looked at my own photos later. OTOH, I wasn't trying very hard to remember anything, that's why I was taking the photos. I just wanted to get out of there.
 
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#31
NeverFollow said:
When I read the title of this thread: "Accident at Oxnard Supercharger Site"
I was afraid that it was a similar incident than the one in Norway.
Luckily, no Tesla or Supercharger were involved.
Click to expand...
That's precisely the accident that came to mind as I was walking back to my car. But when i didn't see a plume of black smoke I figured the connector needed reseating or the power had failed. I figured that since my car had time to send me that message, the cause was probably external and not, um, too terribly violent.

A supercharger was involved, almost certainly the one I was using. It's just that it wasn't at fault. Nor do I see any way to blame it on Autopilot as I'm pretty sure it wasn't engaged at the time.

It occurred to me that the pickup driver was actually lucky he hit that electronics cabinet. Judging from how far he pushed it, and the dent it left in the front of his truck, he must have hit it at speed. They're probably bolted to concrete slabs with bolts that probably give way fairly easily, so it absorbed a fair bit of energy. Had he hit that mall sign to the right, it could have been a lot worse.

I'd like to know what happened to the black S (7KHE529) on the other side of that sign. It wasn't there when I left.
 
#33
PLUS EV said:
What happened to the palm tree behind stall 4B? Based on where he ended up, I'm pretty sure that's what stopped him.
Click to expand...
Yep! In the very first picture of the thread you can see two people carrying a cut palm log away from the area, and in the second ‘after’ pic there are piles of sawdust across space 5B. The stump is still under/in front of the truck.

Yikes yikes yikes.
 
#34
I'm not sure. Judging from the marks on the front of the truck, it looks like he first hit the electronics cabinet with the right front of his truck, and that took most of the energy and spun him to the right. The tree then made a relatively small dent on the left front, and the workmen were probably cutting it just to clear the way to remove the truck.

I'm just glad I didn't stay in my car while it was charging.

And I just can't wait for the news reports blaming this one on the Tesla Autopilot.
 
#35
ka9q said:
Another shot shows me still connected when I made these photos. I was using spot 3B; the one that got obliterated (to my car's left) is 4B, and the unaffected spot to my car's right is 2B. This site has very unusual spot numbering; usually its 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc, which I've always assumed is driven by the need to keep the high current DC cable runs as short as possible.

I assume by "high voltage cabinet" you mean the supercharger electronics cabinet where the 3-phase 480V AC is converted to ~400V DC for two paired charging spots.
Click to expand...
This is why I always say 4B is the slowest charger. Frickin' Elon.
 
#37
ka9q said:
I'm not sure. Judging from the marks on the front of the truck, it looks like he first hit the electronics cabinet with the right front of his truck, and that took most of the energy and spun him to the right. The tree then made a relatively small dent on the left front, and the workmen were probably cutting it just to clear the way to remove the truck.

I'm just glad I didn't stay in my car while it was charging.

And I just can't wait for the news reports blaming this one on the Tesla Autopilot.
Click to expand...
Hmmm... I wouldn't think they would cut a tree down just for the hell of it. Would probably be in violation of some environmental law or something. I think the only justifications would be in case of emergency (possible in this case) or because the tree had either fallen over or was clearly going to die or whatever.
 
#38
I didn't see the tree while it was being cut down, but I don't doubt that it had been knocked over or mostly over. My point was simply that the charger electronics cabinet probably absorbed most of the energy of the pickup truck before it hit the palm tree.

In the previous accident at this site, news reports show a crane being used to remove the accident vehicle.
 
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