On Thursday morning the burned out shell of a Tesla was all that remained at the scene of a fiery collision that took the lives of four people, and hospitalized one, near Toronto’s Port Lands overnight.
The crash happened just after midnight on Lake Shore Boulevard East just west of Don Roadway. Police said the driver of the Tesla lost control of the vehicle while travelling at a high rate of speed and collided with a guard rail. The vehicle then struck a concrete pillar, they said, before bursting into flames.
Four people — three men aged 26, 29, and 32, and a 30-year-old woman — were killed in the crash.
A fifth, a 25-year-old woman, was rushed to hospital in serious, non-life-threatening condition.ÌýPolice said that a passing motorist, believed to be a man, stopped to help pull the sole survivor from the burning car.
Four people are dead after high-speed Tesla crash in downtown Toronto.Ìý
The names of the four dead have not been released, and police have not provided details on where the group was headed at the time of the collision.ÌýInvestigators would also not confirm if the Tesla was a self-driving model.
Video captured immediately after the crash by construction worker Keith Barrow from across the channel showed a blazing fire and billows of smoke, with the lights of several emergency vehicles glowing in the night. Even across the stretch of water, the fire burned brightly, illuminating the underside of the Gardiner Expressway.
“We were on the opposite side of the river and we heard the tires squealing and we heard the impact,” Barrow, a foreman at QM Environmental, said. “So I drove over to DVP and Lake Shore and by that time, the flames were 20, maybe 30 feet high. It was scary to see.”Ìý
The foreman said about five other vehicles had pulled off to assist by the time he arrived. He did not see anyoneÌýextracted from the vehicle, he said, but those who stopped were trying to break the car’sÌý windows.
“It probably took about three minutes for me to get there and by that time, they might’ve already had the woman out. I’m not sure,” Barrow said.
Four people are dead, and one woman suffered serious injuries in the crash.
R.J. Johnston/º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøStarAccording to º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøFire Deputy Chief Jim Jessop, an “exponential” amount of water is required to extinguish an electric vehicle fire. Once the blaze had been put out, crews disposed of the car’s battery cell in a dumpster that was then filled with sand and transported to a dump yard.
Jessop also said º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøFire is working with industry experts and peers across North America on how to respond to calls for electric vehicle fires.
In January, just steps away from the collision scene, an 18-year-old lost control of his vehicle, struck an oncoming pickup truck and went into the icy Keating Channel. He died in hospital after being stuck in the water for more than four hours.
In a statement, The City of º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøoffered condolences to the family and friends of those who died and wished a full recovery to the passenger who was seriously injured.
“The º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøPolice Service is currently investigating this incident. Anyone with more information should reach out directly to police,” the statement said.
With files from Kevin Jiang and Andy Takagi
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