Federal investigators have opened what is now their fourth active investigation involving a Tesla vehicle after two teenagers were killed in a fiery crash of a Model S in Florida on Tuesday.
The National Transportation Safety Board announced Wednesday it was sending a team of four to investigate the crash on State Route A1 in Fort Lauderdale, which killed two 18-year-olds and injured a third 18-year-old.
Barrett Riley, who was driving the 2014 Tesla Model S, and Edgar Monserratt Martinez, who was in the front passenger seat, died at the scene when the vehicle drove off a roadway and crashed into a concrete wall, according to the police report. The car immediately caught fire and was fully engulfed in flames, police said.
Alexander Berry, who was in the back seat, was ejected from the vehicle and taken to the hospital, said police, who theorize that excessive speed may have been a factor in the crash.
The NTSB said it is focusing on the emergency response to the electric battery fire. The agency said it did not anticipate that Autopilot _ Tesla's driver-assistance technology, which has been in the spotlight lately _ would be part of its investigation.
"NTSB has a long history of investigating emerging transportation technologies, such as lithium ion battery fires in commercial aviation, as well as a fire involving the lithium ion battery in a Chevrolet Volt in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration," NTSB Chairman Robert S. Sumwal said in a statement.
Tesla has not been able to retrieve the vehicle logs, "but everything we have seen thus far indicates a very high-speed collision and that Autopilot was not engaged," a spokesman said Thursday.
"The family who owned the car has been a close friend of Tesla for many years, and this hits us particularly hard," he said.
The NTSB is now investigating four accidents involving vehicles made by the Palo Alto electric-car company, including the fatal accident on Highway 101 in Mountain View in March. That accident killed Walter Huang, 38, of San Mateo, who was driving a Model X and crashed into a concrete barrier. The Model X caught fire. Tesla said Autopilot was engaged in the moments leading up to the March 23 crash.
The agency is also investigating two other crashes in California: A Model S crashed into a fire truck near Culver City in January, and the driver reportedly said Autopilot was engaged at the time. And it is looking into a battery fire of a Model X that drove into a home's garage in Lake Forest last August.
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