A microcar manufactured by Smart Automobile (a German auto marque of Daimler AG) suddenly burst into flames while on the highway, bringing into question the vehicle’s safety.
Swiss national Aurélie Rossier was driving a 2008 Smart Fortwo through Highway 417 when the interior was suddenly filled with smoke.
“I couldn’t see the road anymore. I couldn’t breathe,” Rossier, who borrowed the car from her friend Aaron Matharu, told
CBC.
Rossier pulled over to the side of the road and escaped from the vehicle; the car suddenly caught fire moments later.
“To see a car burned like this, it was really crazy for me,” she said, speaking in French. “I was really, really scared.”
A spokesperson for Ottawa Fire Services said that the department first received calls regarding the incident around 12:19pm. Witnesses reported spotting the fire coming from the rear of the car.
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Matharu said that the car belonged to his parents, who purchased the car used about five years ago.
After the fire, he reached out to Mercedes-Benz to look into the sudden fire, but customer service was in complete denial that such things could happen to their cars.
The car’s insurer also tried to distance itself from the incident, Matharu said, because the vehicle was not insured for fire damage.
The incident is not an isolated case – the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been investigating a number of unexplained fires happening to Smart’s cars. The investigation, launched late last year, looked specifically into the 2008 and 2009 Smart Fortwo Coupe and Smart Fortwo Cabrio models following eight complaints that alleged engine compartment fires.
The specific car models in question have their engines at the back of the vehicle.
Analysis confirmed that there were 27 incidents of open flame fires originating from the engine compartments.
US investigators also looked into fire-related insurance claims involving the vehicles and found that the 2008 Smart Fortwo “had a significantly higher claim frequency than its peers.” Officials also discovered that there was a “sharp increase” in claims in 2015.
Transport Canada told
CBC last week that it was only aware of one such fire that involved a 2008 Smart car. The agency also noted that the fire was determined not to have been caused by a safety defect.
CBC, however, found another case in eastern Ontario involving a 2008 Smart Fortwo spontaneously combusting. In November 2010, Marion Wyatt and her husband awoke to the sound of what could have been the tires of their 2008 Smart Fortwo exploding. The two rushed to check their vehicle – which was fortunately parked outside their garage – to find it covered in flames.
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