My 17 yr old son was driving his 2018 Hyundai Accent home from work, and was merging onto the freeway and when he realized the cars in front of him dead stopped he slammed his brakes but was unable to stop in time. Happens all the time right? It should just have a little front end damage, when the vehicle in front of him only had minor bumper damage. But, instead, within just moments, his vehicle burst into flames and he only had seconds to react. He grabbed his phone and wallet and had to exit through the passenger door because he was on the freeway and needed to get to safety. His car was completely engulfed in flames and burnt the entire car. He was very close to being either badly burned or killed, if he hadn’t acted as smart and quick as he did. What if this car was carrying a family with small children, or an elderly person who couldn’t move fast or react like my son did. It could have been a much, much worse situation. I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else. We, along with everyone else at the scene, including CHP and friends who are mechanics, believed this fire should not have happened, and we all feel like something must have been wrong with his vehicle for this fire to have happened. We just purchased this vehicle in Sept of 2021 from Mission Bay Chevrolet, we had only made 2 payments at the time of the accident. We have seen far worse accident and far worse front end damage on other vehicles and these car did not catch on fire. Cars aren’t supposed to catch on fire in an accident if this nature, this should not have happened, and we really want some answers as to why? Thank you for your time!
NHTSA ODI 11452126