Automatic brakes on Tesla Model X electric saloon have saved the lives of two families by stopping them being crushed to death by a falling tree amid Storm Dennis.
The incident took place near the village of Sturminster Marshal, England on February 15 where a financial consultant Laurence Sanderson from Brentwood in Essex was driving through Dorset in his £86,000 Model X electric saloon when the enormous 400-year-old oak was blown to the ground.
The tree landed on the car’s bonnet, avoiding the roof when the car ground itself to a sudden halt due to the automatic brakes. Sanderson said had it not been for the automatic brakes, he and his family would have been ‘toast’.
Travelling with Mr Sanderson in the passenger seat was his wife Anna, with his children Max, 12, Isabella, nine, and Rex, three, in the back.
The family were in Dorset on holiday with the children currently on half-term.
Remarkably, the car travelling in the opposite direction was another Tesla, with the cutting-edge technology also working in the nick of time, Dailymail UK reported.
The other Tesla was carrying a family of four – all of whom were also uninjured. Both cars have since been confirmed as write-offs.
In the aftermath of the shocking incident, both families were taken in by a couple in a nearby house who gave them food and water. The A31 was blocked in both directions as a result of the tree fall.
He said, “My wife’s a bit battered and bruised but apart from that we’re completely unscathed – it’s a miracle. We were driving along the A31 and I saw the tree coming down in the blink of an eye. The car slammed the brakes on and the trunk landed on our bonnet.”
“Literally another second and we would’ve been toast. It was huge – the biggest tree I’ve ever seen. The other car had four people in it and they were all okay. The odds of both cars being Teslas is extraordinary.”
The scene was attended Dorset Police, Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, South Western Ambulance Service and Highways England.
