Four people are dead and one person is in hospital after a Tesla traveling at high speed in downtown Toronto struck a guardrail and crashed into a concrete pillar on Lake Shore Boulevard.

The incident occurred shortly before 12:15 a.m. in the eastbound lanes of the busy road east of Cherry Street.

“The vehicle lost control, crashed first into the barriers and then into the concrete pole. The vehicle caught fire following the collision, Duty Inspector Phillip Sinclair told reporters on Thursday morning.

He confirmed that three men and a woman, all believed to be in their 20s and 30s, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Another driver who was in the area at the time of the accident stopped and managed to pull a woman in her 20s out of the burning vehicle.

Toronto Paramedic Services said the woman was transported to hospital with serious injuries. But he is expected to survive

“I believe the fire started with the help of bystanders. So once again, a big thank you to the person who was there,” Sinclair said. “We’re talking to them and obviously they’re deeply affected by this; “This is too scary a scene for bystanders to step in.”

Firefighters later discovered a “significant fire,” assistant fire chief Jim Jessop said.

“Our crews worked to quickly extinguish the fire, and after the fire was extinguished, our crews realized there were multiple people inside the vehicle,” Jessop said. “Under the direction of the coroner’s office and the Toronto Police Service, Toronto firefighters carefully removed the bodies and they are now in the custody of the Chief Coroner’s Office.

Footage taken from the scene shows the burned and crumpled vehicle being removed from the scene of the accident.

There was a heavy police presence at the scene in the early hours of the morning and the Collision Reconstruction Unit was trying to piece together exactly what had happened.

It is not yet known what caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

“We are asking anyone who was in the area of ​​Lake Shore Boulevard and Cherry Street, who witnessed the incident or has surveillance footage to contact police,” Sinclair said.

Lake Shore Boulevard was closed in both directions between Don Valley Parkway and Cherry Street overnight as police investigated the fatal crash. The road reopened around 08.30.

Inspectors examining vehicle batteries

Jessop said the intensity of the fire was “directly linked” to the battery cells in the Tesla and noted that “thermal runaway” is a growing concern in lithium-ion-powered devices.

“I will say we had to be extra careful this morning, with the assistance of Toronto Police, as we reopened Lake Shore and removed and moved one of the battery packs that was ejected during the collision,” Jessop said.

“We worked with Transportation Services, Solid Waste and Parks and Recreation to arrange for a dumpster to arrive at the location where the Toronto Fire Department placed the discarded cell in the dumpster, covered it with sand, and hauled the dumpster out to a yard to ensure it was disposed of safely. ”

He said that it is known that lithium-ion battery packs catch fire again even weeks after the first fire, and that the fire department is increasingly paying attention to this issue.

“This is something that will definitely be an evolving risk that the Toronto Fire Service is very proactive about preparing for in the future,” Jessop said.

But he said it was too early in the investigation to say what role the batteries played in the fire or crash.

“I want to be very clear; “We’ve all been involved in crashes involving terrible gasoline-powered car fires,” he said. “So I don’t want to make any recommendations or comments until the investigation is complete.”

Sinclair said police will examine every angle to determine what happened.

“As with any investigation, you work with city partners to look at all factors that may be involved, including road surface, environmental factors, to determine exactly what factors were involved or what may have led to the collision,” he said.