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Four people have died in a car crash in France after their Tesla vehicle reportedly hit a road sign and caught fire.
A local police spokesman, Lt. Eric Hoarau, said on Monday that the exact circumstances of the crash on Saturday night near the city of Niort were still to be determined and an investigation was underway.
“Everything suggests (the vehicle) came off the road,” Hoarau said, citing marks on the ground and a severed road sign.
There were no witnesses, he said, making the investigation complicated.
The driver and three passengers were burnt beyond recognition, he added.
A local judge said: ‘An inquiry has been opened to determine the causes and circumstances of the deadly accident, a probe during which expertise on the vehicle will be requested.’
Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Last month California firefighters had to douse a flaming battery in a Tesla Semi with about 50,000 gallons (190,000 liters) of water to extinguish flames after a crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
In addition to the huge amount of water, firefighters used an aircraft to drop fire retardant on the “immediate area” of the electric truck as a precautionary measure, the agency said in a preliminary report.
Firefighters said previously that the battery reached temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (540 Celsius) while it was in flames.
The NTSB sent investigators to the August 19 crash along Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northeast of Sacramento. The agency said it would look into fire risks posed by the truck’s large lithium-ion battery.
The agency also found that the truck was not operating on one of Tesla’s partially automated driving systems at the time of the crash, the report said. The systems weren’t operational and “could not be engaged,” according to the agency.
