A speeding teenage driver caused the fatal crash of a Tesla Inc. vehicle in Florida in 2018 and the subsequent fire in the electric car’s battery contributed to the severity of the injuries, a federal investigation concluded.
The 18-year-old man, who had previously been cited for speeding, was traveling as fast as 116 miles mph in a Model S and lost control on a street in Fort Lauderdale, where the speed limit was 25 miles per hour, the National Transportation Safety Board found in a report released Thursday.
The driver and a front-seat passenger died as a result of the ensuing fire, the NTSB said. A passenger in the rear survived with multiple fractures.
The crash is one of several under review by the NTSB in which fires erupted in the flammable lithium-based batteries used in Teslas and other vehicles. The batteries are difficult for firefighters to extinguish and can reignite hours or days after a crash.
The safety board is planning to release a safety report on the battery fires in 2020.