PIEDMONT, California — Three people died and one was badly hurt early Wednesday morning in Northern California when a Tesla Cybertruck crashed and caught fire.
Piedmont Police Chief Jeremy Bowers said that speed was probably a role in the accident involving only one car, but he also said that the police would continue to look into what happened.
The people in the Cybertruck were coming back from a “function” around 3:10 a.m. Wednesday, but Bowers wouldn’t say more. The victim who was still alive was pulled out of the Cybertruck by someone who had been at the event but was driving a different car.
The chief wouldn’t say anything about the victims’ identities because he wanted to protect the privacy of their families.
The firefighters quickly put out the fire, even though the police officers who arrived couldn’t douse it with their fire extinguishers.
After putting out the fire quickly, Piedmont Fire Chief Dave Brannigan said it was not likely that the Cybertruck’s big lithium-ion battery had caught fire. It was “more along the lines of a typical car fire,” he said.
In answer to a question about the recent Cybertruck recalls Bowers said, “There’s no indication that mechanical effects were the main cause of the collision.”
The Cybertruck has been on sale for about a year and has been recalled six times for safety issues. The most recent recall was on November 5 because of a problem with an electric generator that can make the drive wheels lose power.
Other recalls dealt with issues like rearview camera pictures that don’t show up right away after shifting into reverse, trim pieces that can come off, windshield wipers that can stop working, and warning lights on the instrument panel that have the wrong font size. The futuristic trucks were called back in April to fix gas buttons that can get stuck in the trim inside the trucks.
It takes about 4 km (2 miles) to get from Oakland to the city of Piedmont.
