Officials: Tesla driver moved seats following fatal crash in Spring

DETROIT — Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board apparently have solved the mystery of why no one was found behind the steering wheel of a Tesla that crashed in a Texas two years ago, killing two men.

The agency said in an investigative report released Wednesday on the fiery April 17, 2021, crash in the Houston suburb of Spring that the 59-year-old Tesla driver apparently moved to the back seat after slamming into the car’s front air bag, deforming the steering wheel in the crash.

Although the crash raised questions about whether the car was operating on Tesla’s “Autopilot” partially automated driving system, the NTSB determined the system could not have been used on the street where the crash happened due to lack of lane lines.

The 2019 Tesla reached 67 mph two seconds before hitting the second of two trees at 57 mph before being consumed by flames as the lithium-ion battery caught fire.

The Tesla’s event data recorder showed the accelerator moved “consistent with driver activity” in the five seconds before the crash and that the driver’s seat belt was connected when the crash happened.

“Although the driver’s seat was found vacant and the driver was found in the left rear seat, the available evidence suggests that the driver was seated in the driver’s seat at the time of the crash and moved into the rear seat postcrash,” the report said.

The agency found that excessive speed and failure to control the car due to alcohol impairment caused the crash. The report says testing by a Federal Aviation Administration lab found that the driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.151 grams per deciliter, almost twice the Texas legal limit of 0.08.