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A horrifying accident caught on camera in Dayu County in China captures the moment a Tesla Model Y goes up several feats in the air, rolls over seven times, and finally comes to a stop.
In the video, you can see the Model Y not only up in the air but also length-wise, meaning that some parts of the vehicle were more than 15 feet up in the air, which is the length of the Model Y.
The accident is indeed horrifying. However, what’s impressive here is not the severity but rather the outcome of such an unfortunate event.
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The Model Y in question had four passengers: a woman behind the wheels, a man in the passenger seat, and two more individuals in the back.
After the vehicle rolled over seven times and was up several feet in the air, the Model Y ended up on the right side, helping with extraction efforts.
The accident was as severe as it sounds. The Model Y's windshield was completely shattered. After rolling over so many times, not only was the windshield shattered, but it was all but completely gone.
After being in the air, the Model Y’s glass roof was equally shattered, with big chunks missing. Almost all parts of the vehicle, from bumper to bumper, experienced severe to moderate damage.
However, this is where the bad news ends and the good news starts. Similar to the video that captured the Model Y several feet up in the air and violently rolling over, several videos have also come out sharing the aftermath.
@Tesla goes above & beyond conventional safety requirements. This Model Y flipped more times than I count with two passengers in the car and both of them are able to live to see another day.
I would never drive another vehicle for this reason. Safety is often overlooked when… pic.twitter.com/5wjUoo5A7p
— Nic Cruz Patane (@niccruzpatane) May 2, 2024
As already mentioned, the Model Y’s windshield is completely gone. Fortunately, the vehicle settled on its tires, which gave nearby individuals unobstructed access to peer into the cabin and assess the injuries.
Here, you can see all the airbags throughout the vehicle have been properly deployed. The driver, passenger, and all the side-mounted airbags are deployed.
In addition, an airbag can be seen deployed between the driver and the passenger. This airbag is specifically designed to stop the damage that can be caused when the driver and passenger come into contact during an accident.
In this instance, you can see this airbag has done wonders by stopping the driver from colliding with each other even though they were both up in the air for several seconds and rolled over violently seven times.
After the airbags, what you can see is that the Model Y passengers, although not severely harmed, have still sustained some minor injuries.
You can see small amounts of blood all over the passengers. It appears this was caused by pieces of glass that shattered during the rollover.
However, despite the minor injuries, the passengers appeared to be doing perfectly well. Although visibly shaken, the woman behind the wheel can be seen relieved, even perhaps smiling after this ordeal.
The man next to her is doing even better. Not only does he appear to have not sustained major injuries, but the man can be seen using his smartphone while still in the Model Y.
In the video we got, we can’t easily see the condition of the rear passengers; however, social media posts from individuals present during the accident suggest that one of the rear passengers sustained minor injuries, whereas the other escaped this horrifying crash practically unscathed.
The #Tesla's safety is well documented, with more than a dozen airborne tumbles that left drivers and passengers unharmed
This is the best ad pic.twitter.com/yJrApVjE4H
— 大趙 (@zhongwen2005) May 2, 2024
The aftermath of this horrifying crash was fortuitous; however, it appears there was more than luck in determining the outcome of the accident.
The Tesla Model Y is not only the best-selling vehicle in the world but also the safest vehicle in the world.
The Model Y received this esteemed honor after undergoing tests by several governmental, regulatory, and third-party non-profit organizations, which afforded the mid-sized all-electric SUVs the highest safety ranks in their respective testing regiments.
In the US, the leading regulatory agency that sets the standards and determines the safety level of the most popular vehicles is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
This organization, which is part of the Department of Transportation, tested the Model Y and awarded Tesla’s all-electric mid-sized SUV a 5-star rating in all categories, the highest possible score.
When the NHTSA awarded the Model Y a 5-star rating, the EV maker shared a short blog post explaining why the vehicle is so safe. Tesla asked what makes the Model Y safe and answered as follows…
“Model 3 and Model Y were developed largely on the same platform, and this shared architecture is fundamental to both vehicles’ safety. To accommodate its higher mass and larger cabin space as an SUV, Model Y’s body structure is fortified and strengthened even further than Model 3 in pursuit of its 5-star safety rating.
At its core, in the event of a collision, Model Y is engineered to distribute crash forces around the cabin and away from vehicle occupants, greatly reducing the risk of injury. Our front and rear crumple zones and optimized side structures enable Model Y to manage crash energy very efficiently, reducing accelerations on the vehicle and, more critically, its occupants.
Additionally, Model Y’s structure now includes the world’s largest casting. Along with a fortified battery pack, these elements mitigate intrusion into the cabin, creating a robust safety cell with enough room for our advanced restraint systems to deploy and provide even more occupant protection.”
Interestingly enough, during the NHTSA’s 5-star rating announcement, Tesla particularly highlighted the Model Y’s rollover risk writing…
“Rollovers significantly increase the risk of injury during an accident. To calculate rollover resistance in NHTSA’s test, Model Y is parked on a suspended platform that rotates in all directions to physically measure center of gravity and moments of inertia. NHTSA’s assessment determined that Model Y has a rollover risk of 7.9%, the lowest of any SUV recorded to date by the organization.
As with all Tesla vehicles, Model Y’s architecture is fundamentally designed to have a very low center of gravity, which is accomplished by strategically placing its heavy battery pack and electric motors low down in the vehicle.”
As stated above, the Model Y is the hardest vehicle to roll over thanks to the positioning of its heavy components low down in the vehicle. However, as you can see in the accident footage, the woman was able to fling the Model Y several feet in the air.
Not only that, the Model Y in this particular accident managed to roll over seven times in a relatively urban environment with pedestrians and other cars nearby. The exact details of the accident are unclear, but it appears that the woman behind the Model Y wheel was likely driving above the speeding limit.
Thankfully, even if a Model Y rolls over, its roof is designed to withstand several times the vehicle’s curb weight, even upside down.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an independent non-profit organization in the US that tests vehicle safety, the Model Y roof can withstand a peak force of 19,188 lbs, or 4.42 times the Model Y’s curb weight of 4,342 lbs.
It appears the Model Y’s superior roof strength is directly responsible for the relatively positive outcome of this unfortunate crash.
You can see in the video that some parts of the Model Y roof have cracked. However, despite rolling over seven times, the Model Y passenger compartment was largely intact, protecting the occupants.
The IIHS has awarded the Model Y the highest “Good” rating in all six crashworthiness categories and the highest overall “Top Safety Pick Plus” mark.
This is all well and good; however, when a Tesla vehicle gets into an accident, the question inevitably returns to whether the EV maker’s advanced driver-assist system, Autopilot, is to blame.
From all available information, it doesn’t appear that autopilot was engaged at the time of the accident. Tesla has recently started rolling out the company’s advanced full self-driving system, FSD v12, in China; however, there is no indication that this system was also engaged during this accident.
Surviving accidents fall in the category of passive protection, which the Model Y is a leader in; however, when it comes to avoiding accidents, which is part of active protection, the Model Y scores even better marks.
The European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) tested a Model Y with Tesla's vision. In this category, the Model Y scored the highest result of any vehicle tested; announcing the results, Tesla wrote…
“Model Y received a leading score of 98 percent in Euro NCAP's Safety Assist category. This result was achieved with Model Y vehicles equipped with Tesla Vision, our camera vision and neural net processing system that now comes standard in all Tesla vehicles delivered in North America and Europe. This score was a result that many did not believe was possible without using radar.
Additionally, Automatic Emergency Braking continues to see major improvements during vehicle turning-across-path scenarios and when reversing with vulnerable road users in its route. Model Y also scored full points in the Lane Support System category. Lane Support Systems help reduce accidental road departures–one of the main causes of single vehicle and frontal crashes according to Euro NCAP.”
If all the recognition from various organizations wasn’t enough, Tesla followed up the Euro NCAP’s results by stating…
“Our team is dedicated to improving driving safety. Achieving some of the highest safety scores ever awarded doesn’t give us pause—it motivates us to make some of the world’s safest vehicles even safer.”
Overall, Tesla’s active and passive safety features appear to have saved the lives of the Model Y passengers in China who were involved in the horrific accident. However, Tesla seems to just be starting, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as the EV maker improves its vehicles' safety credentials.
Until then, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.
So, what do you think? Are you surprised to see the Model Y occupants walk away from such a crash? Also, what do you make of the people taking a video of the crash even while the passengers are still inside? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below by clicking the red “Add new comment” button.
Image: Screenshot from @zhongwen2005 video on X
For more information, check out: Tesla Stock’s Incredible 5-Day $170 Billion (37%) Rise Immediately Reverses to a $57 Billion Loss After Jim Cramer Gives Elon Musk a Stump of Approval – “Inverse Cramer” Strikes Again
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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