Transportation
- A Florida man was killed after his Tesla Model S spun out of control and hit a tree.
- Bystanders tried to rescue him, but the car's retractable door handles did not retract. The car was fully engulfed in flames when an officer arrived on the scene.
- Last year a similar crash claimed the life of two teenage boys in the area. One of the victim's parents is now suing Tesla.
A south Florida man, Omar Awan, was killed on Sunday after his Tesla Model S spun out of control, for reasons yet unknown, hit several trees and was engulfed in flames. The police estimate the car was traveling between 75 and 90 miles per hour.
"It was just a massive ball of fire, it's not possible anyone could've saved whoever was in there," one bystander told Local 10 News.
According to the police report, "efforts to extract the driver were unsuccessful."
By the time a police officer arrived a few minutes after the crash, the car was already was already in flames according to the police report. The body was burned beyond recognition, according to the police report.
The blue Model S was towed away, but just before 5:00 am Monday morning "it reignited and caught fire once again from a ruptured battery," the report said.
Last May, two teenaged boys were killed when their Model S traveling at 112 mph spun out of control and crashed into a wall in nearby Fort Lauderdale. They were also trapped inside the car.
One of the victim's parents are suing Tesla. They claim that one of the company's service centers removed a speed limiting device the driver's parents had installed in the car without notifying them.
They also claim that the car is "not crashworthy" because its battery is "inherently unstable and subject to explosion and spontaneous fire."
"The vehicle had inadequate measures to prevent a post-collision fire; to wit: The battery pack of the Tesla was not treated with intumescent material to protect and provide protection from the propagation of thermal runaway from one cell to the adjacent cells," says the lawsuit.
Tesla has yet to respond to Business Insider's request for comment about the speed of the fire, the fire's recognition, or the ongoing lawsuit against the company.
If you have any experience or information regarding Tesla or its batteries please contact this reporter at llopez@businessinsider.com
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