Electric Vehicle Crashes and Battery Fires: New Risks, Same Ohio Liability Rules

Published August 29, 2023 · Injury Law Basics

Electric vehicles are no longer a novelty on Dayton-area roads. You see them in driveways in Centerville and Beavercreek, in delivery fleets, and in the next lane on I-675. As more of them share the road, more people are going to be hurt in crashes involving them, as drivers, passengers, pedestrians and occupants of the other car.

The good news for injured people is that Ohio's basic rules of fault do not change because a car runs on a battery. But an EV crash raises a few issues that ordinary crashes do not, and some of them affect what evidence needs to be saved, and how fast.

What is different about an EV crash

Weight

Battery packs are heavy. An electric vehicle typically weighs considerably more than a gasoline car of similar size, and some electric pickups and SUVs are heavier still. In a collision, mass matters: the heavier vehicle carries more energy into the crash, and the occupants of the lighter vehicle, or a pedestrian or cyclist, absorb more of it. When an EV strikes a smaller car, the injuries in the smaller car can be more severe than the impact speed alone would suggest.

Acceleration

Electric motors deliver full torque instantly. That quickness is a selling point, but it also means a driver who is not used to it can cover a lot of ground very fast, pulling out of a parking lot, merging, or "testing" the car on a back road. Excessive speed and loss of control are old problems; EVs can make them happen sooner.

Battery fires

Lithium-ion batteries can catch fire when they are crushed or punctured. These fires can burn very hot, can be hard to put out, and can reignite hours or even days after a crash, including after the vehicle has been towed to a lot. For occupants trapped in a damaged vehicle, a battery fire can turn survivable injuries into burns or a fatality. For first responders and tow operators, it is a hazard that requires special handling.

Data

Modern vehicles of every kind record data, and many EVs record a great deal of it: speed, accelerator and brake inputs, steering, driver-assistance status, and sometimes camera footage. Some of that data is stored in the car; some is transmitted to the manufacturer. Either way, it can answer the question every crash case turns on: what happened in the seconds before impact.

What stays the same: fault is still fault

Whatever powers the car, Ohio negligence law asks the same questions. Did a driver fail to use reasonable care? Under R.C. 4511.21(A), no one may drive faster than is reasonable or proper for the conditions, or faster than will allow the driver to stop within the "assured clear distance ahead." A driver who rear-ends a stopped car, runs a red light, or loses control while showing off acceleration is negligent whether the car burns gasoline or not.

Ohio's comparative-fault rules apply in the usual way, and so do your insurance rights. If the at-fault driver has too little coverage, your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage responds exactly as it would in any other crash. Our guide chapter on using your own insurance explains how UM/UIM, MedPay and health insurance fit together.

If you were a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a heavy, quiet vehicle in a parking lot or neighborhood street, the same principles apply; see our page on pedestrian and crosswalk injuries.

When the vehicle itself is part of the case

Sometimes the question is not only who drove carelessly but whether the vehicle performed as it should have. A battery that ignited in a moderate crash, a door that would not open after a fire started, or an automated feature that steered or braked in an unexpected way can support a claim against the manufacturer.

Ohio product-liability claims are governed by the Ohio Products Liability Act, R.C. 2307.71 and the sections that follow. Under R.C. 2307.73, a manufacturer can be held responsible if its product was defective in manufacture, in design, because of inadequate warnings or instructions, or because it did not conform to the manufacturer's representations, and the defect was a proximate cause of the harm. For design claims, R.C. 2307.75 weighs the foreseeable risks of the design against its benefits and asks whether a practical, technically feasible alternative design was available that would have prevented the harm.

These cases are technical and expensive, and they depend almost entirely on the vehicle and its data. That leads to the most important practical point in this post.

Preserve the vehicle and its data immediately

After a serious crash, the damaged vehicle is usually towed, declared a total loss by an insurer, and sold for salvage, sometimes within a couple of weeks. With an EV, there is added pressure to move the car quickly because of the fire risk, and the manufacturer or its representatives may ask to inspect or retrieve it.

Once the car is gone, so is much of the evidence. A formal preservation letter should go out promptly to the insurer, the tow yard, the salvage company and, where appropriate, the manufacturer, demanding that the vehicle and all of its stored and transmitted data be preserved. We describe how preservation letters work in our guide chapter on gathering evidence while it still exists, and in our earlier post on event data recorders.

Ohio law does offer some protection when evidence disappears. R.C. 2307.73(B) allows a product-liability claimant who cannot prove a defect directly, for example because the product was destroyed, to prove it with circumstantial or other competent evidence. But that is a fallback. It is far better to have the car.

What this means for you

If you were hurt in a crash involving an electric vehicle:

• Get medical care and document your injuries, especially burns or injuries from a heavier vehicle.
• Do not let your own vehicle be released or destroyed until a lawyer has had a chance to evaluate it.
• Write down what you saw, including any smoke, fire, or unusual vehicle behavior before or after the impact.
• Call early, so a preservation demand can go out before the vehicle and its data are lost.

Our car and truck accident practice handles crashes involving every kind of vehicle, and we know which questions to ask when the vehicle itself may be part of the story.