SALEM, Mich. (FOX 2) – Three people died when a white Nissan SUV traveled the wrong way on the highway in Salem Township drove into the driveway and hit a Tesla head-on.
The blood took hours to clean up and left officers and families with questions about why the offending vehicle was traveling the wrong way in the first place.
“Sometimes the victim is an innocent bystander, probably going to work, and now they’re planning a funeral and it’s very hard to swallow,” said Jim Rachwal, the Salem Township fire chief.
The tragedy occurred in the eastbound lanes of M-14 late Wednesday morning. The crash occurred on the Gotfredson Road on-ramp when the Nissan drove the wrong way and hit the Tesla.
Two people were in the SUV and one in the Tesla. The two people in the SUV who were found dead on arrival included a 31-year-old man and a 27-year-old woman. Both were from Battle Creek.
The driver of the Tesla was a 53-year-old from Munith.
Equally terrifying was before the driver of the Tesla died, they were trapped in the vehicle when it caught fire. According to Rachwal, local fire departments are still struggling to put out fires involving Tesla cars.
It’s hard to get water on its lithium-ion batteries, which are the source of some Tesla fires.
“We have fire blankets, which control the burning to some extent, but once it goes into thermal runaway, there’s not much right now that we’ve come up with the technology to put out this fire,” Rachwal said.
Crews used the jaws of life to cut open the doors to get the patient out, but by then it was too late.
Michigan State Police are still investigating why the Nissan drove the wrong way and whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.