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Model 3 Accident, Is this car really safe to drive?

Discussion in 'Model 3' started by bigroccrek, Dec 22, 2018.

  1. mhan00

    mhan00 Active Member

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    A sore chest would likely be the least of your worries (I’m assuming the burst appendix wasn’t a result of your accident but rather the cause) if your airbags had been needed and didn’t deploy. As others have posted, airbags are extremely dangerous in and of themselves. Things happen so quickly in a violent accident that they don’t have time to slowly inflate to provide a soft surface to gently impact against; they essentially have to explode into existence and can seriously injure or even kill people. They’re there to prevent probable death/extremely serious injury from impacting against hard, immovable surfaces/instruments in the car by providing a more malleable surface to impact against, and reduce probable death to injury/severe pain.
     
  2. surfrasch

    surfrasch Member

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    Well that’s cool, how did you get that movie?
     
    • Like x 1
  3. bigroccrek

    bigroccrek Member

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    • Informative x 2
  4. SMAlset

    SMAlset Well-Known Member

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    And notice the car pictured is an MX. Scum site, clearly one set up by short-seller, noticed all the titles down the side were basically anti-Tesla. Sorry I bothered to look but yeah, it's your story told by someone else.
     
    • Informative x 1
  5. voip-ninja

    voip-ninja Give me some sugar baby

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    That's why it's a good idea to be as rational as possible with posting and not let emotions get in the equation.

    I'm quite happy for you that you got the needed medical attention for a ruptured appendix. Most people don't know that around 50,000 Americans die of appendicitis every year.
     
  6. rmfpdx

    rmfpdx Member

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    Did you report this to the NHTSA? You really should if not.
     
    • Disagree x 3
  7. pschubert61

    pschubert61 Member

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    Was autopilot on? Most likely toe crash was not fast enough in the deceleration on impact to activate airbag. One aspect is rate of deceleration of the car to fire off the airbag.
     
  8. pdq

    pdq Member

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    • Disagree x 1
  9. Dana1

    Dana1 Supporting Member

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    The passenger compartment looks unscathed. Glad you’re ok. Hope you figure out what happened to you and that it’s manageable.

    AFAIK the cars aren’t coded to send accidents to Tesla. Onstar is a voluntary (and expensive) service from Chevrolet. Maybe Tesla will incorporate it eventually but I won’t be a subscriber. It sounds like the car sent the messages that stuff is screwed up but there’d have to be a dedicated service team for emergency services, hence the cost of Onstar.
     
  10. bettegruben

    bettegruben Member

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    Talk to your insurance agent. Be persistent and tell him/her why you need an answer. Before year end. Also, talk to Tesla and make sure you can have your sales contract closed before year end. They have LOTS of incentive to work with you. Also, get a ref# from someone so you can get free supercharging (I think the offer is up to 9 months now) I agree with most of the other posters who said the fact that you were essentially uninjured is a testimony to the car's safety. Anyone else would have been severely injured with such a crash--even killed.
     
  11. JeffK

    JeffK Well-Known Member

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    Reporting might be a waste of everyone's time...

    If you've seen cars crumple before then you'd recognize this as a low speed crash. If you've never seen anything like that then any mangled car is going to look like a horrible violent collision, but this is not the case. If the OP had passed out and their head happened to be near any of the airbags either in the side curtain or if he'd slouched over the steering wheel then if the airbags went off he might not be alive at all. Consider that for a moment.

    When you're in the right place and conditions are right airbags can be awesome, if not then airbags are dangerous explosives near your body. Heck, google "degloving" if you have a strong stomach.
     
    • Like x 1
  12. Paul S

    Paul S Member

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    Quite aside from the airbag question and with all due respect, your medical issue makes it apparent that you should not be driving this or any vehicle. The cause of the incident was not the Tesla -
    Best regards.
     
    • Disagree x 1
  13. JeffK

    JeffK Well-Known Member

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    He might not have known. Typically if there's pain large enough you'll get a cold sweat, blurring vision, then a temporary drop in blood pressure all in a few seconds in which you pass out.

    People don't always know about every medical emergency they are going to have when they get in a vehicle...
     
    • Like x 2
    • Informative x 1
  14. wcorey

    wcorey Active Member

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    I just googled warning signs of appendicitis

    "Chronic appendicitis can have milder symptoms that last for a long time, and that disappear and reappear. It can go undiagnosed for several weeks, months, or years. Acute appendicitis has more severe symptoms that appear suddenly within 24 to 48 hours.Jun 28, 2017"


    A ruptured appendix is considered acute appendicitis. That, btw, was from WebMD

    My guess is within a year, perhaps two, you can get into your tesla and say drive to Hospital and it will. Or, just call 911, your tesla is not designed to be an ambulance.
     
  15. Cactus

    Cactus New Member

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    Two years ago my 16 yo son pulled out of a parking lot and hit an oncoming jeep cherokee in my wife's 2012 Infiniti G37. The damage was similar to the OP pix. Airbags did not deploy. Car was totaled.
     
  16. Asicfoo

    Asicfoo Member

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    First, airbags only deploy between certain speeds. If you are traveling too fast they can’t deploy before your face would enter the explosion zone, and likely kill you.

    Second, airbags require 2+ crumple sensors to deploy. Hitting a pole is usually not an event that will deploy the airbags unless it’s at an angle where the damage hits 2+ sensors.

    There is no difference between what you described and what would happen in a Chevy or BMW. The real issue is that you controlled your car to drive into a pole, conscious or not (the car can not determine if you are conscious), it only knew you pressed the peddles, steering wheel and were present in your seat, until the car hit a pole.

    Other than not calling Tesla, what did it do that it should have? You were probably going to fast or slow for airbag deployment, and like I said they don’t usually deploy when hitting a pole. Also, depending on how they determine an accident, they probably use the same sensors that deploy the Airbag. Again, this is the same as on any brand of car. So, I see nothing wrong, especially nothing safety related.

    What you SHOULD have done was enabled autopilot. Then, I can be pretty sure this wouldn’t have happened.
     
    • Like x 1
  17. JeffK

    JeffK Well-Known Member

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    Exactly, and anyone who's fainted knows there's very little warning and once you've fainted it's too late.

    We've seen several cases now where people have passed out or had other medical emergencies in a Tesla. I wonder if the Model 3 inward facing camera can detect such physical signs and put a confirmation box on the screen to confirm you're ok. If there's not a response in a certain amount of time it could call for you...:)

    It wouldn't be impossibly difficult to implement.
     
  18. Asicfoo

    Asicfoo Member

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    You will get the credit for the car you bought. Regardless if you get a new one now or not, the insurance company will keep the rebate on the new car.
     
    • Disagree x 1
  19. PaddyD

    PaddyD New Member

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    bigroccrek, looks like your Tesla did it's job - admirably. Glad you're ok!

    Re: this idiot who re-posted your article, having looked at the site, which is only 186 days old, it's clear that it's an attempt to monetize bashing Tesla from the other articles posted. (She is hoping that people who do Google searches for Tesla will end up on her site and that then she'll be able to sell advertising based on the traffic she receives. She is a complete dolt, of course.)
     
    • Like x 1
  20. TT97

    TT97 Active Member

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    Huh?
     

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