US NTSB investigates fatal Tesla crash in Florida

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (Reuters) – The United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday announced it would send a team to investigate a Tesla Vehicle Crash (TSLA.O) this week that left two people dead in Coral Gables, Florida.

Coral Gables Police said it was not clear whether the Tesla Model 3 involved in the crash in a residential area on Monday evening was using the electric vehicle company’s driver assistance system called Autopilot. The two people killed were badly burned and have not yet been formally identified.

The NTSB, which makes safety recommendations but does not regulate automakers, said its investigation will focus on the vehicle’s operation and the fire that consumed it after hitting a tree. The agency said three NTSB investigators would arrive in the area on Monday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The NTSB has previously investigated three fatal Tesla crashes in which autopilot was involved. The autopilot handles certain driving tasks such as steering, braking and accelerating and allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel sometimes, but Tesla said drivers should always actively monitor the vehicle when using the system. .

Tesla vehicles have large batteries which have sometimes been involved in long fires after accidents.

The NTSB is also investigating an April Tesla crash in Texas that left two people dead. Local police said they believed the accident happened without anyone sitting in the driver’s seat.

Another federal agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), said it was collecting information about the Coral Gables accident, but has not decided whether or not to send a team to investigate the accident. accident.

The NHTSA in August opened an official safety investigation into 765,000 Tesla and Autopilot vehicles after 11 accidents involving first responders such as police and fire vehicles.

The agency has also opened 33 individual investigations into Tesla’s crashes involving 11 deaths since 2016 in which the use of advanced driver assistance systems was suspected. The NHTSA ruled out the use of autopilot in three of these non-fatal crashes.

Reporting by David Shepardson and Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Will Dunham and Leslie Adler

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