6 Children, One Adult Injured in Tesla Crash Outside School

6 Children, One Adult Injured in Tesla Crash Outside School
File photo showing a police cordon in Plymouth, England, on Aug. 13, 2021. (Ben Birchall/PA)
Lily Zhou
8/17/2021
Updated:
8/17/2021

Six children and an adult have been injured after being hit by a Tesla outside a Sussex school on Monday, police in England confirmed.

The collision happened on Monday afternoon at around 4:30 p.m. outside Ardingly College on College Road, Ardingly.

One 8-year-old boy was airlifted to a London hospital. Sussex Police said the boy suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.

A further five children and one adult were also taken to local hospitals. The Telegraph on Monday quoted a spokesman for Sussex Police, saying three of the children had “potentially serious injuries.”

In a new statement on Tuesday morning, Sussex Police said all six were treated for minor injuries.

At least one person was reportedly pinned under the car, according to the The Telegraph.

The report said that the car was a £40,000 ($55,000) Tesla Model 3 saloon that has self-driving capabilities, and that it was later removed from the college car park—where the collision happened—on the back of a lorry.

Police confirmed that there was a driver in the car at the time of the collision. The 47-year-old woman was uninjured.

Superintendent James Collis said that police will investigate the cause of the accident.

“I’d like to thank our emergency services partners and members of the public who assisted at the scene. Our thoughts are with those there yesterday and their families,” he said in a statement.

“The cause of the collision will form part of our investigation, and we ask people not to speculate at this time,” he said.

“Thank you to those that have already given details. Anyone else who saw what happened or who has any other information, including any relevant dashcam or mobile phone footage, is asked to please get in touch.”

It comes as the United States’ National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a formal probe on Friday into Tesla’s partially automated driving system after a series of collisions with parked emergency vehicles.
Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.