Like most accidents, the initial reports are probably wrong. Hopefully, this accident will be thoroughly, and fairly investigated. If Tesla was a smart company, it would have an investigator on the scene as soon as possible, to fully participate in the investigation, especially in the case of high-profile accidents like this one. Sadly, the police that will investigate this, will probably have little understanding of how EVs work, much less the sophisticated driver assistance tech that is integrated into Teslas.
In the aviation world, when a major accident happens, all of the "Interested Parties" (airframe and engine manufacturers, airline or aircraft operator, pilot's union, etc.) actually fully participate as part of the NTSB investigative team. This really, really works well -- for aviation safety. My fondest fantasy would have "tiger teams" of highly skilled, well trained automobile accident investigators in every major city, in every state, to actually do quality work that would surely save lives and prevent accidents. Every interested party would be invited to participate. The staff would be protected from politics and corruption. Some fantasy, huh?
In reality, very few people ever take safety seriously, and almost nobody wants to pay for it. People want instant answers, and to blame someone, and punish them. Our surface transportation system is getting much more complex every day, and we had better wake up to the need for dramatically more professional safety culture. In my experience, the average traffic cop tries to do a good job, but they are under trained, underpaid, poorly staffed, and under pressure to "get the road cleared, and back to work." A rookie cop with a tape measure and flashlight, was never adequate 50 years ago, and surely is not today.
abc7.com
