WASHINGTON — California firefighters needed to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the Nationwide Transportation Protection Board stated Thursday.Along with the large quantity of water, firefighters used an airplane to drop hearth retardant at the “fast house” of the electrical truck as a precautionary measure, the company stated in a initial record.Firefighters stated up to now that the battery reached temperatures of one,000 levels Fahrenheit whilst it used to be in flames.The NTSB despatched investigators to the Aug. 19 crash alongside Interstate 80 close to Emigrant Hole, about 70 miles northeast of Sacramento. The company stated it will glance into hearth dangers posed via the truck’s massive lithium-ion battery.The company additionally discovered that the truck used to be no longer working on certainly one of Tesla’s in part automatic riding techniques on the time of the crash, the record stated. The techniques were not operational and “may just no longer be engaged,” consistent with the company.Tesla motive force who used to be sentenced in SoCal road-rage assaults launched early from prisonA guy used to be launched from jail after serving lower than a 12 months of his five-year sentence for a chain of road-rage assaults in SoCal.The crash came about about 3:13 a.m. because the tractor-trailer used to be being pushed via a Tesla worker from Livermore, California, to a Tesla facility in Sparks, Nevada. The Semi left the street whilst going round a curve to the appropriate and hit a tree, the record stated. It went down a slope and got here to relaxation towards a number of timber. The driving force used to be no longer harm.After the crash, the Semi’s lithium-ion battery ignited. Firefighters used water to position out flames and stay the batteries cool. The highway used to be closed for approximately 15 hours as firefighters made certain the batteries have been cool sufficient to get well the truck.Government took the truck to an open-air facility and monitored it for twenty-four hours. The battery didn’t reignite.The NTSB stated all facets of the crash are underneath investigation because it determines the purpose. The company stated it intends to factor protection suggestions to stop equivalent incidents.A message used to be left Thursday searching for remark from Tesla, which is based totally in Austin, Texas.After an investigation that resulted in 2021, the NTSB made up our minds that high-voltage electrical car battery fires pose dangers to first responders and that pointers from producers about the right way to handle them have been insufficient.The company, which has no enforcement powers and will handiest make suggestions, referred to as for producers to jot down vehicle-specific reaction guides for combating battery fires and restricting chemical thermal runaway and reignition. The tips additionally must come with knowledge on the right way to safely retailer automobiles with broken lithium-ion batteries, the company stated.Tesla started handing over the electrical Semis in December of 2022, greater than 3 years after CEO Elon Musk stated his corporate would get started making the vans. Musk has stated the Semi has a spread in keeping with rate of 500 miles when pulling an 82,000-pound load.Copyright © 2024 via The Related Press. All Rights Reserved.
