NTSB sends investigators to the fatal crash of Tesla and its semi-trailer

MIAMI (AP) – A federal security agency is sending a three-member team to investigate a fatal accident involving a Tesla electric car and a trailer that looks suspiciously like the 2016 accident involving another company vehicle.

Friday on Twitter, the National Transportation Safety Bureau announced Friday that its team would work in cooperation with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the Friday morning accident at Delray Beach.

A sheriff's report said the tractor-trailer was turning left on a divided highway heading north when the southbound Tesla Model 3 2018 hit the driver's side of the trailer, ripping the roof of the Tesla while she was passing under the trailer.

Tesla driver Jeremy Beren Banner, 50, died on the scene.

The report did not specify whether Tesla autopilot's semi-autonomous driving system or its automatic emergency braking system were operating at the time of the accident. Tesla on Friday issued a statement in which he expressed his sadness and said that the company "was working to find out more and contacted the authorities to offer our cooperation."

The circumstances of the accident are very similar to those that occurred in May 2016 on the other side of Florida, near Gainesville.

Joshua Brown, 40, from Canton, Ohio, was traveling in a Tesla Model S on a divided highway and was using the autopilot system when he was killed.

The NTSB, in a report of 2017, wrote that the design limits of the autopilot system played a major role in the fatal accident, the first in which a vehicle was traveling on a highway under semi-autonomous control systems .

The agency, which makes safety recommendations to the National Highway Safety Administration and other agencies, said Tesla told Model S owners that the autopilot should only be used on limited access highways, which are mainly highways. The report says that despite upgrades to the system, Tesla has not incorporated such protections.

Tesla said autopilot and automatic emergency braking are driver assistance systems. The owner's manual tells drivers that they must constantly monitor the road and be ready to take control of it, if necessary.

In January 2017, NHTSA terminated an accident investigation in the Gainesville area, concluding that the Tesla autopilot system did not exhibit any safety deficiencies at that time.

But the agency warned automakers and drivers not to treat semi-autonomous driving systems as though they could drive themselves. The capabilities of the semi-autonomous systems vary and the Tesla system can keep a car centered in its lane and away from other vehicles. It can also change lanes when it is activated by the driver.

The NTSB will likely incorporate the Delray Beach crash into other investigations conducted last year on Tesla vehicles.

Investigators investigate a fatal accident in March 2018 with a Tesla SUV near Mountain View, California. This vehicle was running on autopilot when it fell on a highway barrier, killing its driver, determined the agency.

In addition, the NTSB is investigating the crash of a Tesla Model S sedan that could have used the autopilot when it hit a parked fire truck on Interstate 405 near Los Angeles. The driver told the authorities that the autopilot was operating at the time.

NHTSA is also considering a May 11th crash involving a Tesla Model S near Salt Lake City. The autopilot was in service when the car hit a stopped fire truck.