Four individuals from Gujarat were killed after a Tesla car in which they were travelling crashed into a divider in Toronto, Canada. The incident took place at around 12:15 am on October 24.
The car reportedly caught fire at Lake Shore Boulevard near Cherry Street, where the vehicle lost control, hit the guardrail and collided with a concrete pillar as per the reports from Canadian media.
The victims—identified as Neelraj Gohil (26), Ketaba Gohil (30), Digvijay Patel and Jay Sisodia—were pronounced dead at the scene. A fifth passenger, Jhalak Patel, was rescued by a nearby driver and was subsequently taken to hospital by Toronto Paramedic Services.
The Gohil siblings, Neelraj and Ketaba, are from Godhra and the children of Sanjay Singh Gohil, a retired Panchmahal District Bank employee. Digvijay Patel and Jay Sisodia, who also perished in the accident, are from Anand district. Jay, a member of a prominent family, is the son of Professor Harendrasinh Sisodia from Bhadran College and nephew to former Borsad MLA Rajendra Singh Parmar.
Preliminary information indicates the group was returning from a friend’s birthday celebration when the accident occurred. The cause of the vehicle losing control remains unknown; however, Canadian authorities reported that the severity of the fire was exacerbated by the vehicle’s Tesla battery cells.
According to Toronto Fire Deputy Chief Jim Jessop, an “exponential” amount of water is required to extinguish an electric vehicle fire. Once the blaze had been put out, the car’s battery cell was disposed of in a dumpster that was then filled with sand and transported to a dump yard.
Furthermore, a woman in her 20s was rescued from a burning car by a passing motorist who stopped to help. She was taken to the hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
An eyewitness reported that multiple cars stopped to help and were attempting to break the windows of the vehicle involved in the crash.
“We have reached out to the Government of India to expedite the repatriation of our loved ones’ bodies back to India,” said a relative of Neelraj Gohil, with assistance from Godhra District Collector CK Raul and MP Rajpalsinh Jadav.
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