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Model S destroyed, terrible crash

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JoshG

Member
Jun 23, 2011
440
443
This is pretty horrific looking. Was in the Fremont service center today when this tow truck pulled in.

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(if this has been reported already, sorry for the repost. Really tough to search on iPhone.)

Service and factory workers crowded around to examine it. Tow driver had no details - he picked it up from a salvage yard, so this could be old news. But the workers here clearly hadn't seen it.

Speculation from the workers first was that it was rolled, but later they seemed to agree it crashed through something, shearing off body panels and scraping all sides.

I really hope the driver is ok. The passenger compartment is intact, all the airbags deployed, so lets hope so.

I'm going to not post the pics where the license plate is visible to protect the owner and family in case there are serious injuries or worse.

But once again I'm impressed with how the vehicle did everything it could to protect the occupants.

In some pictures there's something sharp showing in the drivers window - that's just a piece of the bumper the tow driver tossed in there for transport, not something that protruded into the cabin in the crash.

The workers hustled it away to a remote area of the property.

If anyone knows details, please let us know if everyone is ok.

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Holy smokes - I was there today to drop off my car but must have left before this showed up...? I was there from 10:30 to 11:30 maybe. Crazy looking - I wonder if the damage is really horrible, or just mostly body panel cosmetic stuff (aside from the obviously jacked up left front wheel).
 
Wow. Hope everyone was ok.

One of the things that worries me about the rear facing seats is that they're so close to the back window area. Were you able to tell how the rear held up?

The hatchback looks intact, so I would say signs look good. You can see it's in one piece and maybe some sheet metal on the right side has torn, but there's no evidence of structural damage in the rear.
 
One of the things that worries me about the rear facing seats is that they're so close to the back window area. Were you able to tell how the rear held up?
I keep hearing folks say this so I keep trying to correct the misconception. The rear facing seats are among the safest place to be just in general since rear end crashes are a) more rare and b) not usually at near the same speed as a front crash, and c) Tesla's far, far, far, surpassed the crash impact resistance required for the rear passengers in a rear end collision (Elon said so in a video last year).
 
I keep hearing folks say this so I keep trying to correct the misconception. The rear facing seats are among the safest place to be just in general since rear end crashes are a) more rare and b) not usually at near the same speed as a front crash, and c) Tesla's far, far, far, surpassed the crash impact resistance required for the rear passengers in a rear end collision (Elon said so in a video last year).

Also you can't draw any conclusions about a rear impact unless it actually has the rear jump seats. Otherwise the extra crash protection will be missing.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm trying to picture how this occurred. More specifically, why the driver door looks untouched but in front of and behind it are trashed.

I'm guessing multiple impacts. Car gets hit, spins, impacts another car or fixed obstruction.
 
From my experience with crashes this looks to be an incident where the occupant(s) walked away or else you would see the remnants of the jaws of life. Very rarely will paramedics pull occupants out that are severely injured without unhinging the doors or cutting the A-pillar. Also, the windshield is undamaged which hopefully means that there was little to no flying debris inside the vehicle as well as the impact in the front not being severe enough to crumple the cabin.

The first impact looks to be rear passenger side which seems to have pushed the car into another in front and then spun off the road into the ditch.

From these pic's though it looks promising for the occupant(s) and my heart goes out.
 
From my experience with crashes this looks to be an incident where the occupant(s) walked away or else you would see the remnants of the jaws of life. Very rarely will paramedics pull occupants out that are severely injured without unhinging the doors or cutting the A-pillar. Also, the windshield is undamaged which hopefully means that there was little to no flying debris inside the vehicle as well as the impact in the front not being severe enough to crumple the cabin.

The first impact looks to be rear passenger side which seems to have pushed the car into another in front and then spun off the road into the ditch.

From these pic's though it looks promising for the occupant(s) and my heart goes out.
I think that's sound analysis. The passenger cell looks intact. The fact that the front wind shield is uncracked speaks to the strength of the cell. I think the assumption that the people inside walked away is a sound one.
I find these pictures at the same time of course very sad but also extremely encouraging. We are driving a very save car. Thanks to the OP for posting.
And all the best to the owner / driver and anyone else who was inside at the time of the accident.