Electric Car's Battery Caught Fire in Accident – Driver Died

A man in his mid-40s has died following a serious accident outside Falköping earlier this month. The man drove off the road in his electric car, which caught fire after the accident. The fire department faced a difficult battery fire that took nearly an hour to extinguish.

The accident occurred in the morning on road 193, near the intersection with national road 47 at Slöta, just southeast of Falköping. The emergency services received the alarm just before eight o’clock, and fire crews, ambulance, and police were dispatched to the scene.

According to police reports, the driver had run off the road and the car caught fire in connection with the accident. Police stated that the man appears to have lost control of the car in a curve before it ended up in a field.

When emergency responders arrived, the car was burning. The driver had already been removed from the vehicle by passersby. This was reported by SVT.

It turned out to be an electric car, and the fire was particularly difficult to manage because of the battery. According to information from the fire department, a so-called thermal runaway occurred in the battery after the accident, causing the fire to persist and making it hard to extinguish. The firefighting efforts lasted about an hour.

The driver sustained severe injuries and was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries. It is not yet clear exactly what caused the accident or to what extent the accident itself or the fire contributed to the man’s death.