Not unexpectedly many questions will not be answered regarding the cause-of-death of four occupants of a Tesla that reportedly struck a guardrail and pillar while subsequently catching fire on Lakeshore Boulevard near Cherry Street in downtown Toronto early Thursday morning, October 24, 2024. News media that reported the tragedy did not answer basic questions that ought to have been asked if the public were to be properly advised about what occurred.
The news media were able to obtain a quick response from police when it came to blaming the Tesla’s speed for the results. However there was not evidence provided to support that comment. Any event data that might exist in the Tesla’s control modules would take time to download, more time than normal because the vehicle’s burned condition would make it harder to locate the relevant modules and “dig them out” of the fire debris. So it is highly unlikely that police conducted any such download before commenting on the speed. Traditional methods of estimating speed of a loss-of-control vehicle would involve examining any evidence on approach to the impacts, estimating how much crush existed on the vehicle as a result of the impacts, and then considering what additional speed loss occurred after those impacts. These three areas of evidence are difficult to judge/calculate in a short time so once again, it is doubtful that any proper speed estimate was determined at this early stage of the investigation. But news media seemed to take that information blindly, and report it to the public, without questioning it.
Another issue is that a guardrail was reportedly struck yet the Tesla also struck a “pillar”. Generally, that is not supposed to happen. We spend considerable money to erect guardrails for the specific purpose of preventing vehicles from striking something dangerous that is beyond those guardrails. So why was the “pillar” struck? And did news media even try to find out what pillar was struck? Even without knowing the precise location of the impacts a previous visit to the area in February of 2024 confirmed that the area was under construction and that guardrails were positioned essentially against the pillars that held up the Gardiner Expressway. Anyone with even minimal knowledge of roadside protections would understand that a guardrail is meant to deflect errand vehicles from stiff and immovable objects such as concrete pillars but, in doing so they need space so they can be deformed laterally. This is what protects vehicle occupants during the re-direction phase of contact. But when a guardrail is placed directly against a concrete pillar it is essentially useless because the guardrail has no time or space in which to complete that re-direction. Driving along Lakeshore Boulevard confirmed that many pillars were far too close to guardrails in the area. But news media never seemed to recognize that or question it.
Furthermore there was the issue of road construction and whether it existed at the time that the collision occurred. Nothing was mentioned about this yet it is common that re-directing traffic in construction zones is one of the ways in which dangerous vehicle motions are generated.
And the matter of the occurrence of a vehicle fire seemed to be a commonplace event in the minds of news media. As if vehicle fires should be expected, regardless of any circumstances. Yet one of the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (CMVSSs) deals specifically with preventing vehicle fires in crashes. New vehicles that catch fire in controlled tests would not be allowed on Canadian roads if they failed those tests. Did the news media ever ask anyone whether it was reasonable for the Tesla to catch fire in this collision?
One of the ways one can assess collision severity is by looking at the extent of deformation or crush to a vehicle. While there was obvious fire damage to the Tesla, what few images of the vehicle existed did not show a massive extent of crush. Nothing that should mean that a fire was inevitable. But did the news media question that?
A lot of questions, no answers and likely no answers ever in the future.
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