Tesla driver opens up on surviving freak accident after miraculously coming out unscathed in collision
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/douglasthron777
A Florida Tesla driver has opened up on surviving a freak accident which remarkably left him completely unhurt.
At around 4:30pm local time on Thursday (4 April), Fort Lauderdale Police and Fire Rescue were called out to an incident at Southeast Third Avenue Bridge.
And when they arrived at the scene, authorites were shocked with what they discovered.
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A Tesla Model Y and a minivan were damaged after part of a crane collapsed onto the bridge, while the bridge itself had an apparent hole, seemingly caused by the falling crane.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Chief Stephen Gollan said: "It is my understanding from the construction company that they were doing a process at the time called stepping the crane. It was not the crane that failed; it was a platform that they had equipment staged on that had failed at the time of the incident."
There was, of course, many people who saw the tragic events unfold, with one witness who lives in front of the building sharing his version of events with 7News.
He told the outlet that part of the crane actually fell into the Tesla first, with the part bouncing off the electric vechile before landing on the minivan.
Tesla driver talks about surviving Fort Lauderdale crane landing on his car. pic.twitter.com/ZcLTiMXu9p
— Florida Drone Cleaning DOUGLAS THRON (@douglasthron777) April 4, 2024
"The big crane was falling down, and it looked like when it hit the bridge, it broke in part," the witness said.
"There is a portion of the crane near the construction site, and the other one that hit the bridge bounced off the Tesla and then bounced up and hit the van. We drive this every day, so it’s a pretty scary thing to think."
Mark Cerezin, the driver of the Tesla, said he was fortunate to enough to break when he did - something that likely saved his life.
The impact with the crane completely destroyed the front of the Model Y, but the vehicle's cabin was left undamaged.
Recalling the events of earlier this week, Cerezin said: "It was just an instinct. It was just a reaction, peripheral reaction, slamming on the brakes.
"I have a Tesla, it’s all glass on top, so I saw here coming down, and that’s when I gauged, I guess, by a split second.
"Had I not slammed as hard as I had with my foot, I’m not here speaking to you. It hit the front of my car. It was like slow motion.
"And then I just saw the front of my car just disappeared. Just, like, sliced it. Then that piece of metal bounced in the air and then went to the right and landed on another car."
Sadly, the incident resulted in a fatality and injuries to two others.