Canadian police are investigating an accident involving a Tesla that suddenly accelerated and crashed into a ramp at a ferry terminal in West Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday.
The carâs two occupants were taken to a hospital for ânon-life threatening injuries,â according to North Shore News, which said the crash caused the car âto break in two.â
A photo reportedly taken at the scene showed the Tesla Model 3 on a car ramp at the ferry terminal, with much of the front end of the vehicle apparently ripped off and both front airbags deployed.
âWe donât know what caused it to happen,â Sgt. Mark McLean of the West Vancouver Police Department told the news outlet.
âIt looks like it was trying to board a ferry and suddenly accelerated into the gate, basically destroying the Tesla,â he said.
However, Deborah Marshall of BC Ferries disputed that theory in an email to CTV News.
âThere was no vessel in the berth at the time of the incident,â she said. âThe vehicle was not attempting to board a ferry.â
McLean told CTV the police are investigating the cause of the crash.
âTheyâre so high-tech that itâs going to be quite time-consuming to go through all the data and find out whatâs going on,â she said.
Police do not believe the driver was impaired, according to CTV.
There have been multiple reports of Teslas suddenly accelerating, according to Electrek.
The tech news outlet ran a story in September 2016 highlighting several such incidents, including a Model S that crashed into a gym in Irvine, California, in June of that year and a Model X that hit a curb in a parking lot in Bradenton, Florida.
âThis story is not about the Tesla Autopilot,â Electrekâs Fred Lambert wrote at that time. âI want to be clear because the highway accidents involving Tesla vehicles with the Autopilot enabled are a completely different matter and unrelated to these claims of sudden unintended acceleration.â
Lambert later reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating the issue of âsudden unintended accelerationâ after it received a petition citing 127 such incidents.
In January 2021, after the investigation, the NHTSA announced that the incidents were all attributed to user error, Electrek reported.
âNHTSAâs Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) issued the results of its investigation ⌠confirming that it found that the incidents were due to âpedal misapplicationâ â in other words: drivers pressing the wrong pedal,â the report said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
