A Tesla Model 3 owner was driving himself and his son in Napa, California, when a pickup truck driver hit them. They were in a residential neighborhood when the truck driver ran a stop sign and t-boned the Tesla at the driver’s side door.
If you’ve ever been in a similar incident, you’re probably aware that it can often be difficult to prove who’s at fault. Sadly, the Tesla Model 3 appeared to be totaled, and the pickup truck driver lied to the police.
In many cases, the authorities may never know for sure what happened, meaning your insurance company could hold you partly or even fully responsible based on another driver’s lies. Thankfully, since every new Tesla comes with a built-in dashcam (TeslaCam), owners may have video proof to share with the police and their insurance companies.
In this particular crash, the pickup truck pushed the Model 3 into two different utility poles. As you can see from the footage in the video, one of the utility poles is broken off and pushed into the air and away from the car. The Tesla driver and his son had to climb out the window of the EV. The pickup truck also has notable damage on the front end.
The crash damaged some of the car’s cameras, and the camera that captured the incident is an Autopilot camera that isn’t typically used for the TeslaCam feature. This means the Model 3 owner had to request footage of the crash from Tesla. Tesla sent him the footage, which proved the truck driver had lied to the police.
Reportedly, the pickup truck driver told the police that the Tesla driver “took him out.” Bystanders tried to get the truck driver to calm down, and he refused to even ask the Tesla owner and his son if they were ok. Little did he know, everything was being recorded.
Fortunately, the Model 3 owner and his son were uninjured. After seeing the footage, the police sided with the Tesla owner, realizing the pickup truck driver was lying.
Check out the video for more details about how the Tesla Model 3 crash played out. There are also 20 other short TeslaCam stories to watch, featuring crashes, near misses, hit-and-run accidents, and more.
After you’ve watched the video, scroll down and leave us your takeaways in the comment section below.
