A crash and subsequent battery fire earlier this week involving one of Tesla's semi trucks that shut down I-80 in both directions for most of an entire day is now being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
"The NTSB, in coordination with the California Highway Patrol, has opened a safety investigation into the August 19th crash and fire involving a Tesla electric powered truck tractor on Interstate 80 near Emigrant Gap, California," the agency tweeted Wednesday night.
The truck fire began around 3 am Monday, when the truck went off the road on I-80 eastbound and crashed into some trees near Emigrant Gap. The truck's lithium-ion battery, which is about ten times the size of a regular Tesla battery, caught fire, and created a hazardous materials situation that went on for 16 hours.
As KPIX reported, firefighters had to let the battery fire burn out, because you can't just spray water on it, and this produced a lot of toxic fumes that forced the closure of I-80 in both directions.
"The water that you use to put it out is going to collect toxic chemicals. You'll create sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid," said Dylan Khoo, an electric vehicle industry analyst, speaking to KPIX.
Khoo explained further that the size of the truck's battery made this situation more difficult than if a regular, car-sized EV battery caught fire. "That battery is going to release a lot more toxic gases. It's going to burn a lot longer. It's generally a lot harder to put out."
The westbound lanes of I-80 ultimately reopened in the late afternoon Monday, about 13 hours after the fire began, while the eastbound lanes did not reopen until around 7 pm.
Many drivers and truckers were waylaid or extremely detoured as a result of the freeway closure.
The fire happened just three weeks after a similar fire involving lithium ion happened due to a truck crash in San Bernardino County. That incident, which happened on I-15 in Baker, California, led to a two-day shutdown of the freeway as the fire burned itself out — and an effort to push the burning battery substance into the desert caused it to reignite and burn hotter. Many drivers became stranded, running out of gas, and a detour onto I-40 led to a 50-mile traffic backup, as Fox5 Vegas reported.
In that fire, the truck was not an electric truck, but was carrying a load of lithium ion to a solar farm in Wisconsin.
The two incidents together prompted Republican lawmakers in Sacramento to call on Governor Gavin Newsom to delay his Advanced Clean Fleets Mandate. The mandate calls for all medium to heavy-duty trucks in California to be transitioned to zero-emission vehicles by 2045.
Photo via CalTrans District 5
