The daughter of a 76-year-old woman who was killed when a Tesla crashed into her Texas home described hearing a 'boom' moments before discovering her mother inside the wrecked house. The crash, which occurred at around 20:00 local time on 19 June, is now under investigation by US auto safety regulators after the driver admitted he was using an automated driving assistance system.
According to a local police report, the Tesla Model 3 'failed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway, and struck the residence' in Harris County. Sergeant Alex Turman of the Harris County Sheriff's Office said the vehicle 'failed to turn right at an intersection and, at a high rate of speed, crashed directly into a house'. The driver was taken to hospital and was cooperating with police, who confirmed he was not intoxicated. But, Turman added, one line of inquiry was the driver's claim that the car was operating with an automated driving system at the time of the crash.
“A 76-year-old woman died after a Tesla crashed into a Texas home while the driver said he was using self-driving tech.”
The woman who died was inside the home when the car struck it. She lived with her daughter, son-in-law and their three children, all of whom were also at home. In an interview with a local CBS station, the woman's daughter said: 'My mum was such a caring woman.' She found her mother after the crash, and the woman was taken to hospital but died of her injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a special crash investigation into the incident on Monday. 'NHTSA is launching a special crash investigation into this crash,' an agency spokesperson said. Such inquiries are the agency's most 'in-depth and detailed' form of investigation, separate from the local police probe, and are designed to gather data on emerging vehicle technologies to improve safety. A representative of Tesla, owned by trillionaire Elon Musk, did not respond to a request for comment.
'We're still evaluating what caused the car to fail to control its speed just before this crash,' Sergeant Turman said, as investigators search for answers in a case that has again raised questions about the safety of automated driving systems.