PARIS – A taxi driver who quit his job crashed a Tesla Model 3 Witnesses said in Paris on Saturday night plowed through metal posts, a row of pay-to-ride bicycles, a recycling bin filled with glass and hit pedestrians and a truck in front of them. when stopped.
Tillard Diomande was serving customers from behind his bar in Moonlight African restaurant when Tesla the past is vindicated. When he walked out, he said it was a carnage.
“I thought it was an attack. There was glass, dust … it was as if there was an explosion,” Diomande said. Reuters.
One person was killed, three seriously injured and 17 others injured in an accident in the capital’s 13th district on a street lined with bars, restaurants and shops.
A judicial source said that an investigation into the driver’s involuntary murder has been opened.
“Heard explosions, silence, crying. A war scene below. Very, very shocking,” said a teacher who lives in the apartment above where the crash happened. Reuters via Twitter.
CCTV video from inside the nearby Sarawan restaurant shows a black car speeding down Avenue d’Ivry, followed by a massive collision seconds later.
Diners turn the car in the direction the car is going. One woman covered her mouth with her hand, another covered her chest with her hand and bystanders ran towards the accident.
G7 Deputy CEO Yann Ricordel told Reuters the accident happened when a taxi driver was leaving work to take his family to a restaurant. The driver tried brake but the car sped up instead, Ricordel said.
A police source said Reuters that the car, stopped at the red point traffic lights, suddenly sped forward, hitting and dragging a cyclist, who later died.
It’s unclear if the vehicle is operating in Tesla’s Autopilot mode, which handles some driving tasks. Police sources said the driver tested negative for alcohol.
The driver told investigators he purposely drove the vehicle into objects to stop it.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.
French government spokesman Gabriel Attal told a press conference that Tesla had informed the government that there was no immediate indication that a technical fault was the cause.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal told reporters: “We have, of course, contacted Tesla’s management and they told us there is no technical issue with flagging on their vehicles.
Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari told RMC radio that he spoke with the chief executive of Tesla Europe, who told him there were no safety warnings about Model 3.
He added that the automaker, which collects detailed data from sensors and cameras on its vehicles, informed him that it had provided relevant technical data to investigators.
Paris’ G7 taxi company suspended the use of 37 Model 3 cars in its fleet following the crash.
Servant Idris Benlalli witnessed the end of Tesla’s path of destruction.
He say tram destroyed a line of rental bikes and sent a glass recycling bin several meters into the air before shards of glass splattered across the area.
The Tesla stopped at a busy intersection, its left front corner shattered, the windshield shattered and the entire left side badly damaged.
Debris was scattered on the runway.
“There were quite a few people on the ground,” Benlalli said. “It was chaos.”
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