DAVIE, Florida: The driver of a Tesla Model S was killed when his car crashed near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and erupted in flames.
Witnesses told police in Davie, Florida, that the car was traveling 75-to-90 miles per hour (120-to-145 kilometers per hour) Sunday afternoon when it left the road for an unknown reason. The driver over-corrected and the car slid across three lanes and into some trees in the median.
A police officer arrived almost immediately after the crash but wasn’t able to rescue the driver before the car was engulfed in flames. Officers identified the driver as Omar Awan. The crash remains under investigation.
Tesla said in a statement that it was deeply saddened by the crash and is cooperating with police. “We understand that speed is being investigated as a factor in this crash, and know that high speed collisions can result in a fire in any type of car, not just electric vehicles,” the company said.
The Tesla’s battery reignited twice on Monday morning at a salvage yard where it was towed, Davie Fire Marshal Robert Taylor said.
Tesla said in a statement that it posts language on its website for first responders saying that fires can take up to 24 hours to extinguish and that they should consider letting the battery burn while protecting exposures to buildings.
Last year the National Transportation Safety Board opened investigations into two Tesla fires in California, one in West Hollywood and the other near Mountain View.
A spokesman for the NTSB said Monday that it is not investigating the Davie crash.
Tesla driver killed in high-speed Florida crash and fire
Tesla driver killed in high-speed Florida crash and fire
- Witnesses: The car left the road for an unknown reason and the driver over-corrected and the car crashed
- Fire officers said the car's battery reignited twice at a salvage yard where it was towed
Rubio meets Caribbean leaders as US raises pressure on Cuba
Basseterre: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will seek to address Caribbean leaders' concerns about Cuba at a summit on Wednesday, as Washington ramps up pressure on the communist island fresh after removing Venezuela's president.
Rubio, a Cuban-American who has spent his political career hoping to topple Havana's government, is also looking for sustained cooperation on Venezuela and troubled Haiti as he takes part in the summit of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, which does not include Cuba.
After attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to Congress, Rubio flew overnight to join the summit in Saint Kitts and Nevis, a sun-kissed former British colony of fewer than 50,000 people.
Rubio became the highest-ranking US official ever to visit the tiny country, the birthplace of one of the United States' founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.
Trump has reoriented foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere through his "Donroe Doctrine" in which he has vowed unrepentant intervention to advance US interests.
After US forces snatched Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro in a January 3 raid, the Latin American country has been forced to cut off its crucial oil shipments to Cuba.
This has plunged Cuba into a further economic morass with fuel shortages and rolling blackouts.
Speaking at the opening of the CARICOM summit on Tuesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that a further deterioration in Cuba will impact stability across the Caribbean and trigger migration -- the top political concern for Trump.
"Humanitarian suffering serves no one," Holness said. "A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba."
Plea for 'stability'
Holness said that Jamaica believed in democracy and free markets -- a rebuke to the communist system in Havana -- but called for "humanitarian relief" for Cubans.
"Jamaica supports constructive dialogue between Cuba and the United States aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability," he said.
"We believe there is space, perhaps more space now than in years past, for pragmatic engagement."
The summit's host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, also called for humanitarian backing to Cuba, saying: "A destabilized Cuba will destabilize all of us."
A medical doctor, Drew studied for seven years in Cuba and said friends there have told him of food scarcity, power outages and garbage strewn in the streets.
"I can only feel the pain of those who treated me so well when I was a student," he said.
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba almost continuously since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Since becoming the top US diplomat, Rubio has publicly toned down calls for regime change, and Washington has quietly held discussions with Havana.
Trump and Rubio have threatened sanctions against countries that sell oil to Cuba but stopped short of enacting some measures pushed by Cuban-American hardline critics of Havana, such as prohibiting the transfer of remittances.
'Elephant in the room'
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said she empathized with the Cuban people but took issue with her Jamaican counterpart's remarks.
"We cannot advocate for others to live under communism and dictatorship," she said.
She also criticized CARICOM countries for their reticence, at least publicly, to back what she called the "elephant in the room" -- US intervention in Venezuela.
Trinidad and Tobago, whose coast is visible from Venezuela, gave access to the US military in the run-up to the operation that removed Maduro.
The deposed Venezuelan leader faces US charges of narco-trafficking, which he denies.
Persad-Bissessar thanked Trump, Rubio "and the US military... for standing firm against narco-trafficking, human and arms smuggling."
The Trump administration has been carrying out deadly strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, drawing criticism by those who say the attacks are legally and ethically dubious.
The Trinidadian prime minister praised the US approach and credited it with bringing down her country's homicide rate by helping cut the flow of firearms from Venezuela.
