The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched an investigation into whether Tesla’s advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) was in use when a 2022 Model Y hit a 17-year-old student who had exited a school bus in North Carolina last month.
According to the NHTSA, Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems were believed to be in operation during the North Carolina collision, Reuters reports. The crash occurred on March 15, with the driver being charged by North Carolina State Police with passing a stopped school bus, striking a person, and reckless driving, according to a WRAL report.
North Carolina State Police did not provide a comment on the Reuters report.
NHTSA has opened numerous special crash investigations involving Tesla’s advanced driver assistance systems since 2016. Last month, NHTSA opened an investigation into a fatal crash involving a 2014 Tesla Model S in Contra Costa County, California, in which a Tesla hit a fire truck, and the Tesla driver was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tesla is often cleared in these investigations, most recently in February when it was determined driver error, not Tesla’s ADAS systems, were to blame for the death of a couple who rear ended a truck in a Florida rest stop.
NHTSA requests info from Tesla after fatal crash in California
