Tesla's electric truck just crashed and kept burning for hours
What's the story
A Tesla Semi truck was involved in a serious accident on a California highway earlier this week. The incident occurred when the vehicle veered off the road, and collided with trees before catching fire. It kept burning for hours. This led to an almost 16-hour closure of I-80, as reported by KCRA 3 News. The crash site was located near the Nevada border, where Cal Fire crews arrived to manage the situation.
Steps
Efforts to cool down the truck's battery
Firefighters had to use thousands of liters of water to cool the Tesla Semi's lithium-ion EV battery pack. Their goal was to reduce its temperature to a manageable level of around 37.8 degrees Celsius while waiting for its cells to burn out. Once they successfully lowered the batteries' temperature, they began moving what remained of the Semi toward Tesla's Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada. The highway was fully reopened after 16 hours.
Investigation underway
Driver hospitalized, cause of crash under investigation
The California Highway Patrol informed KCRA 3 that the driver of the Semi was taken to a hospital, after walking away from the crash. Authorities are now investigating the cause of this accident, including whether fatigue played a role. The Semi was operated by Tesla and is often used as a commercial truck, for transporting freshly made EV batteries from its Gigafactory to its Fremont car manufacturing plant in California.
Information
Similar incidents took place in the past
This is not the first instance of big Tesla batteries catching fire in California. The firm's Megawatt energy storage batteries were engulfed in a blaze at a local utility in 2022, which in turn shut down part of a highway.