The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they are sending teams to investigate a fatal crash in Florida on Friday involving a Tesla Inc car and a semi-trailer.
The two agencies are investigating several crashes involving the use of Tesla’s driver assistance system Autopilot including a fatal crash in California in March 2018. NHTSA, the auto safety regulator, can demand a recall if it believes a defect poses an unreasonable risk, while the NTSB makes safety recommendations.
A spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Department that oversees NHTSA said late on Friday that “NHTSA’s Crash Investigation Division assigned a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash,” while the NTSB said it is sending a team of three “to conduct a safety investigation.”
A report on Friday’s crash released by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department did not indicate if Autopilot was engaged at the time of the crash that killed the 50-year-old Tesla Model 3 owner.
The report said the Tesla struck a tractor trailer and the roof was sheared off as it passed underneath the trailer and came to a rest three-tenths of a mile south of the collision. The driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
