How could a car burn down if it's hit on the rear?

[arwenmark]

It doesn't have to be from behind one of my son's was driving when he had a seizure and went off the road and hit a tree, front of car caught fire, he was unconcious slumped over in the front seat. Fortunately a man and his wife came up on the car and thought it was empty but got out to check, he found my son inside and managed to drag him out before the car was engulfed.

[saibot]

Originally Posted by JONOV

Also, the 15 or so gallons of gas sitting behind/underneath you...Accidents happen. While they are designed to be protected, cars are still designed to crush (basically absorb as much impact as they can to prevent it transferring to your thorax.)

Did the driver of the Tesla burn?

No, amazingly, both he and the passenger survived. The passenger was able to crawl into the back seat and get out, and neighbors helped him pull the driver out.

By the way, they didn't have an easy time opening the door. It was a Model X and the power went down when the battery caught fire (my father-in-law, who was standing nearby and narrowly missed being hit/killed, said it "exploded"), so the automatic doors weren't working. The driver was injured and no help; the passenger had never been in a Tesla and didn't know where the manual release was. I am not exactly sure how he got the back door open. I think he said he kicked it. (?)

It was a crazy incident and made the local news. Tesla Crashes Into Lake Forest Home, Igniting Fire - NBC Southern California . This report leaves out some of the details (such as the fact that there was a passenger, and that the driver was DUI and going 80-90 mph on a residential road).

Several weeks afterwards, a government inspector came out from the East Coast to talk to my father-in-law about it. Apparently this tendency of Tesla batteries to burst into flames in high-speed crashes is under investigation.

[Coldjensens]

A lot of cars now have plastic gas tanks. Plastic tanks while not as strong, are also not as rigid. They are less prone to rupture. However any gas tank they can be ruptured and ignited by any spark. A gas tank near empty is much more dangerous than a full tank. However hit any car hard enough in the rear and have a spark, and it will burn. Electric cars will not catch fire like that (although they can catch fire from electrical heat if there is something to burn, but that is not from an accident, it is just something that can happen if there is a defect.

It also does not have to be a gas line. My son has an oil line blow while driving on the freeway, the engine burst into flames - hot oil, not gas.

[hiero2]

It is very rare. But all those petrochemicals, and the battery metals, are flammable. I was driving along in a friend's VW (rear engine) one day and a car came up next to us, honking like crazy. The driver was pointing behind us, and we were bewildered. Until we looked behind us, and saw the flames coming out of the engine compartment. It was a gas leak, which created a fire. Then, since the flames were hot, the magnesium in the engine components caught fire. Pretty spectacular, but the car burnt to the ground. Fortunately with us standing far enough away to merely consider toasting marshmallows.

[Ethereal]

Originally Posted by mike1003

Uh, where is the gas tank???????

And, burn "down"???

What's with the snarky response? I thought someone with your rep points would be a little more productive and courteous. You do realize I clearly emphasized that I have feeble knowledge about vehicles. I don't even drive, btw.

Anyhow, I wrote my post in a hasty manner. I was still distressed after the incident. I made grammar and spelling mistakes

[C24L]

gas line or gas tank could rupture get on something hot and it catches fire.gasoline is highly voltile