i3 versus pedestrians accident near NYC today

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vreihen

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 30, 2019
Messages
303
Location
Orange County, NY (FN21vm)
There was a story on the NYC 6 o'clock news about a blue i3 striking pedestrians:

0527pedaccident.jpg


https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/05/27/children-struck-car-jump-curb/

It sounds more like a distracted driver situation than an EV silently sneaking up on unsuspecting pedestrians.....
 
It looks like this i3 is a newer version based on the silver strip along the hatch.

It is possible that this unit didn't come with the drivers assist options.

I hope that the injuries are not so bad that everyone survives!

On a positive note: The batteries didn't catch on fire!
 
Story doesn't mention it being an electric car at all, just that it jumped the curb. Which is nice, a news story that just reports "car did a thing," rather than "OMG! EVS ARE HORRIBLE, SEE HOW ONE ALMOST KILLED SOMEONE!"
 
I agree that it was refreshing to see a lack of EV sensationalism in the reporting. This was the lead story on the NYC 6 o'clock news last night, and the teaser focused on it being a BMW rather than an EV. I was expecting to see a slapped-out X3, and wasn't even watching the story until my DW said "Hey, that's an i3 on TV!" The reporters must have been so distracted bashing the BMW driver that they missed the fact that it is an EV.

Follow-up coverage this morning said that the driver was reported to police for having problems holding his lane, and arrested at the scene for DUI. Three victims, two were adults and one kid. The kid was airlifted by chopper to the hospital. All are stable as of this morning.

I was studying the body damage to the car with interest, because I live in a rural area with deer standing in the middle of the road I live on almost every day (and sometimes a bear). They scatter well in advance of my diesel pickup or race car reaching them, but I have no idea how they will react to the EV. The car was a BEV model, and the only visible body damage that I could see in the TV images was a cracked license plate frame. There is a big smoosh in the center of the passenger side windshield, and I assume that whoever was struck was scooped up by the hood/frunk and landed on the windshield. I would expect to see similar damage in a deer collision, and it looks like a new windshield will be the bulk of the repair costs if I ever wind up in a deer-versus-i3 collision.....
 
I was thinking about the issues that have been floating around with the steering that suddenly wants to turn and if you are not on the ball to fight the steering wheel, the car can turn usually not when it is ideal to.

i wonder if under the surface, the steering issue is also to blame. If so, BMW may be forced to fix it!
 
The story has a new plot twist. One of the local cable TV news sites has published the driver's name (Mitchell Messling, age 66), and that he works at Rallye BMW!

https://longisland.news12.com/story...dwi-after-car-hits-child-2-adults-in-freeport

The car is a 2018 model, and he was arraigned this morning for DUI (0.17 BAC) along with a whole slew of backup vehicular assault charges.

He appears to be employed in sales, not service, so the crashed vehicle was probably not a customer's car in for service:

page1


It had older NY passenger plates on it, so it was probably his car and not a demo (that would have been driven with a single dealer plate on the rear).....
 
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