Tesla’s manufacturing and safety features built into their Model 3 cars got tested in the first rollover accident of a Model 3 unit. A Reddit user, called StapleGun, said that his wife was driving their Model 3 on a freeway at 70mph when she hit another vehicle. After hitting the car, her Model 3 hit the median and then went rolling a few times before coming to a stop upside down. The redditor wrote, “Figured I would share this since it may be the first rollover accident of a Model 3. It happened earlier this week, my wife was the only one in the car at the time, and her memory of the events is blurry because everything happened so fast, but the following is what we know”.
He further added, “She was traveling on the freeway at approximately 70mph in the left lane. The car collided with a second vehicle in the middle lane. The front driver side of the Model 3 then hit the cement median with enough force to shear the front wheel off. Then the slide sideways and started rolling. A witness said the car rolled “several times” before finally settling upside down. The other car also hit the median, though much less violently, and we believe the driver was uninjured”. Despite all the damage that the car has endured, the car’s owner said that the vehicle performed spectacularly from a safety standpoint.
StapleGun, the redditor, said, “The driver seat airbags protected her during the roll including one underneath the steering wheel for her legs which I didn’t even know was there. As you can see from the photos, the cabin was completely intact. The windshield and glass roof obviously shattered but they did not intrude into the cabin at all”. According to the redditor’s wife, the most impressive part was that the car rolled over in the first place. The redditor wrote, “If a Model X can hardly roll how could a Model 3? I think the median must have popped it up on it’s [sic] side slightly instigating the roll”.
When he saw how severely the car was damaged, he was both shocked and grateful. He said, “When I finally visited the car later in the day I gasp when I saw the damage to the outside. It hit me just how violent the accident was. After peeling back the airbags, it was a sense of relief knowing that although my wife was getting thrown around quite a bit, she was in about the safest place she could be in that situation”. Tesla has introduced some of the most promising safety ratings in its Model 3. The company frequently posted videos of the unit’s safety performance. Despite going through all the manufacturing and production hell of the Model 3, the finished product can give a high-quality performance, and the couple is grateful for their Model 3 unit.
