Two Killed in Tesla Car Crash in Florida

A Tesla car crashed and caught fire in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Tuesday, killing two people, local police said on Wednesday.

A third person in the Model S sedan was taken to a hospital, the Miami Herald reported late on Tuesday, adding it was not immediately clear what caused the wreck.

“What we do know is that there was a traffic crash, single car, the vehicle was a Tesla,” said detective Tracy Figone of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. “It happened at 1300 Seabreeze Boulevard.”

Tesla Inc was not immediately available for comment.

Speed may have been a factor in the crash, NBC reported, citing the police.

While it was not immediately clear what caused the accident, there were also no reports that autopilot was a factor in the crash.

Tesla is currently being probed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for a fatal crash in March in which a Tesla vehicle’s autopilot system was in use.

Autopilot, a form of advanced cruise control, handles some driving tasks and warns those behind the wheel they are always responsible for the vehicle’s safe operation, Tesla has said.

The NTSB also said it was investigating an August 2017 Tesla battery fire in Lake Forest, California, after an owner lost control and ran the vehicle into his garage.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sai Sachin Ravikumar, Bernard Orr)