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All help came too late for the three people. (symbolic image)
KEYSTONE
An accident in North Rhine-Westphalia resulted in an inferno: a Tesla crashed into a tree and immediately caught fire. All help came too late for the driver and two children - first responders failed to reach the doors.
A fatal traffic accident occurred in Schwerte near Dortmund on September 7. A 43-year-old Tesla driver lost control while overtaking on a country road, the car skidded into a tree and immediately burst into flames.
A local resident, Roman Jedrzejewski, ran to the car with a fire extinguisher. He told Ruhr Nachrichten: "I wanted to save people. I tried to open the car, but that didn't work either. It was already so hot from the fire, but the right side of the car was still relatively undamaged."
However, all help came too late for the driver and two children - they burned to death in the vehicle. A third child was seriously injured and was taken to hospital by helicopter.
The fire department also had great difficulty bringing the repeatedly flaring fire under control. In the end, the car burned out completely and a fallen tree also blocked the road. Relatives and emergency personnel were cared for by emergency counselors.
The accident once again raises questions about the safety of Tesla's retractable door handles. According to the German ADAC, these can remain retracted after serious accidents without a power supply - with fatal consequences if rapid assistance is required. Doors are supposed to unlock automatically, but there are repeated reports of problems.
In the USA, the transport authority has launched an investigation, while in China, fully retracted handles are about to be banned, according to media reports. In Germany, a petition is now calling for mandatory mechanical emergency unlocking systems for all vehicles.
