Lakeshore Accident, Tesla Crash: According to Toronto Police, four persons were killed and a fifth suffered critical injuries in a suspected high-speed crash involving an electric car on Thursday. According to police, the incident occurred shortly after midnight on Lake Shore Boulevard East near Cherry Street, involving a Tesla traveling eastward.
Duty Inspector Phillip Sinclair stated that the Tesla was traveling at high speeds when the driver lost control, collided with a railing, and then smashed into a concrete pillar. The truck also caught fire. The car held five people: three men and two women in their twenties and thirties. Sinclair said four of them perished on the scene, while the fifth, a lady, was rescued. She’s expected to survive.
Paramedics stated the woman was rushed to the hospital with critical but non-life-threatening injuries. Sinclair stated that a passing motorist stopped to help and was able to remove the woman from the car. “Very heartbreaking incident,” Sinclair remarked. “Four lives were lost.” Sympathy is extended to individuals who were directly harmed.”
According to Toronto Fire, the incident resulted in a massive fire. “When our first firefighters arrived, they reported a major fire. “Our crews worked quickly to extinguish the fire,” Toronto Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop explained. “Our crews noted some persons inside the vehicle,” Jessop stated that the four bodies were extricated by firefighters and are currently with the coroner’s office. The cause of death has yet to be identified.
He stated that investigators would look into the role the fire played in the incident. “Certainly the intensity of the fire is directly linked to the battery cells in the Tesla, but I want to be very clear, we have all attended collisions where we’ve had horrible car fires that are gasoline-powered,” Jessop stated in answer to a reporter’s inquiry regarding the Tesla’s battery.
Jessop also stated that “extra care” was required when reopening Lake Shore Boulevard East on Thursday morning due to “removing and transporting one of the battery packs that was ejected during the collision.”
“We worked with transportation services, solid waste, and parks and recreation to arrange for a dumpster to arrive where the Toronto Fire Service placed the ejected cell into a dumpster, covered it with sand, and escorted that dumpster up to a yard to make sure that it is safely disposed of,” according to Jessop. Lake Shore Boulevard was completely stopped between Cherry Street and the Don Valley Parkway as police performed their investigation. Around 9 a.m., one lane was reopened in each direction.
“A horrible tragedy,” Toronto police Chief Myron Demkiw remarked about the crash on Thursday. “We offer our condolences to the families that have been impacted, I just can’t imagine how difficult that is for everybody touched by that tragedy.”
