Tesla Model 3 Owner Walks Away From High-Speed Head-On Crash With Minor Injuries

I heard about this tragic accident after Elon Musk replied to this tweet by the Tesla Columbus Ohio Owners giving a few details about the accident. This accident prompted me to write this article yesterday on the Model 3 Crash Safety.

@JenDunlap_ walked away with minimal injuries (sprained ankle, broken rip) and her friend is still in the hospital being monitored but things are looking positive. #dontdrinkanddrive— Tesla Columbus Ohio Owners (@OhioTesla) October 12, 2020

The drunk driver was heading north in a southbound lane on highway 19 in Braxton County (sutton) west Virginia. Jen's passenger was in the backseat rather than the passenger seat. Accident was at 12:05am. The drunk drivers truck rolled and he went straight to jail. Jen and her passenger were taken to Braxton County hospital. Jen was released the same night, while her passenger was released yesterday.

Conclusion

I've been in a couple of accidents in a compact car with a larger vehicle or a truck and I've always noticed the compact vehicle takes most of the damage in those accidents and the trucks have less damage. This isn't always good for the drivers of the trucks, since they don't always have well-designed crumple zones to absorb as much energy as possible. When you are going fast and have to stop in very little time, the more energy the car can absorb the less energy your body has to absorb and the less damage the accident will do to your body. As we discussed in my article yesterday, Tesla designs its vehicles to have large zones that can absorb high-speed impacts and very rigid passenger compartments to protect the passengers of its vehicles. The large and rigid battery pack at the floor of the vehicle adds to the vehicle's safety.

Reference: IIHS 2020 Top Safety Pick + Tesla Model 3

Model 3 achieves the lowest probability of injury of any vehicle ever tested by NHTSA

Paul Fosse is a Software Engineer delivering financial data marts using massively parallel databases (Exadata and GreenPlum) for a major healthcare insurer and a lifelong lover of cars. From the time I saw the 1972 Volkswagen Dasher review in Consumer Reports, I knew the industry would convert to front-wheel drive. Now I am excited to have a front-row seat to the industry's biggest transition in generations, the transition from gas and diesel cars to electric vehicles. I ordered my first EV (Nissan Leaf) in 2010 and now own a 2018 Tesla Long Range Model 3 and have a Cybertruck and a Model Y on order. Contact me on Twitter at Paul Fosse with tips for new stories. Full disclosure, I'm a Tesla Shareholder.

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