Two people died Tuesday morning after a Tesla crashed into a rock barrier and caught fire in Pelham Manor, near the Bronx border in New York. The crash occurred around 9.15 am after the car went through an intersection and struck the barrier, as reported by the New York Post.
Pelham Manor Fire chief Michael Greco confirmed the deaths of the driver and passenger after firefighters extinguished the flames. The identities of the victims have not been released.
Extinguishing the fire took around 20 minutes, but firefighters remained on the scene for several hours to recover the bodies and secure lithium-ion batteries scattered across the road.
“We heard popping and we saw that it was a Tesla so we knew the battery was compromised and was also involved with the fire,” Greco said, adding that the ruptured battery aided in controlling the fire.
Video footage from a nearby service station showed the Tesla traveling through the intersection before colliding with the rocks. The car was left a mangled wreck.
2 dead after Tesla crashes and explodes in White Plains
“We heard a bang and we ran toward the garage and the next thing we saw, we saw the car on fire against the wall,” Chris Ganpat, owner of Manor Auto Service Center, said.
“I was very upset for the people inside, it is Christmas time and I feel really bad for their family right now,” Ganpat added.
This incident follows a recent crash in which three people died and one person was seriously injured after a Tesla Cybertruck crashed in California last week.
