Footage from a home security camera shows the owner of a Tesla Model S entered the driver’s seat of his vehicle shortly before a fatal crash that occurred last month in Spring, Texas.
The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report Monday on the deadly incident.
Crash investigators said the 59-year-old car owner entered the driver’s seat and his 69-year-old passenger entered the front passenger seat at the owner’s house. The car then left the driveway and crashed 550 feet down the street, according to the preliminary report. It did not indicate how fast the car was going but said the speed limit along Hammock Dunes Place was 30 mph.
The report does not address where the occupants were found in the cabin following the crash.
Initial reports had indicated the driver was not behind the wheel at the time of impact, leading to questions about the potential role of the Autopilot driver-assist system in the crash. “There was no one in the driver’s seat,” a spokesperson for the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office told Reuters one day after the April 17 crash.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk disagreed with that assessment, tweeting that data culled from the wrecked car was consistent with an occupant behind the wheel and that Autopilot was not active at the time of the crash.
A post-crash fire destroyed the vehicle, including a data storage device inside the infotainment system. The NTSB said the car’s restraint control module has been recovered but was damaged in the fire. It is undergoing further analysis at the federal crash investigation agency’s laboratory.