Glad they were ok. Must have been quite the hit to spin a mini van.

 

She wasn’t stopped, was still rolling

 

Still, so glad they were ok….

 

Holy crap! Really glad everyone was OK. That is insane.

 

No kidding. Couldn’t believe it. Loved the gas mileage, but not so sure on getting another one.

 

Glad everyone ok.

Did they determine cause... battery in back accelerated perhaps?

 

No determination yet.

 

Glad everyone was ok. It will be interesting to see if it was electrical and an impact on the 12 v battery or if it was a awd and a rear motor was the culprit or why a circuit breaker would not have cut off the traction battery high current. Hope a investigation of source happens. Maybe a fuel line got disrupted from the gas tank.

 

What was the approximate speed difference?

In any case, file a report here: Report a Safety Problem | NHTSA -- the NHTSA needs reports esp. of fires, so if there is a design/manufacturing defect, they find out soon and can initiate a recall.

- G

 

What was the approximate speed difference?

In any case, file a report here: Report a Safety Problem | NHTSA -- the NHTSA needs reports esp. of fires, so if there is a design/manufacturing defect, they find out soon and can initiate a recall.

- G

Done. Thanks for the suggestion

 

another pinto in the making .......

 

Probably not, Tesla gets that honor. 🙄

 

First of all, glad to hear your wife and daughter are okay. Hope they get a thorough check just in case.
I totally understand having doubts in the vehicle after an accident like that. If I had to guess, I would think it's not likely it has anything to do with the electrical system. The most straightforward cause would be a ruptured fuel tank, ignited by the hot exhaust. Regardless of ignition source, the most worrying is how the fuel leak happened, as it looks from the picture that the passenger cabin maintained its shape from the collision. Hope they do a thorough investigation to understand the cause.

 

🙁 Frankly, this IS scary. Personally, I wouldn't buy another Sienna until the investigation is over. That said, these days you can't buy a Sienna anyway, it seems.

I guess you wouldn't be looking to buy a Ford hybrid either any time soon:
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1136537_ford-maverick-hybrid-escape-hybrid-corsair-phev-recall-fire

 

How would a tiny 12V battery cause that fire. You see, that's why all the fake/hyped up news about Teslas have brainwashed people into thinking batteries (any batteries) are dangerous. Don't fall for it people, that's just an agenda by the anti EV crowd.

 

A lead-acid 12V battery will not catch fire in the same way a lithium battery might. But if it is shorted, it can release a large amount of stored energy as heat, sometimes even melting the battery shell, and It can also produce sparks.

Now, if that accident caused the fuel to leak from the gas tank AND the 12V battery to short in the same timeframe, it's not impossible that it was the spark or the overheated metal piece that ignited the leaked fuel or its fumes and started the fire.

What happens when you short a 12 volt battery? Does it explode 😱 - YouTube

Batteries ARE dangerous, regardless of the one's world views.

The anti-EV crowd and its agenda are all but irrelevant to the mass adoption of EV's. What really hinders their adoption is "extremely limited availability", leading to forced choices and price gouging.

If everyone who wants an EV could actually buy one immediately, there'd be twice as many EV's as we have now by the end of the year.

And if everyone who wants an EV could buy one today for the same price as a comparable ICE vehicle, there'd be five times as many

 

Glad to hear your family is safe, please keep us posted.

 

I am not sure how lithium vs. Ni-MH batteries even entered this conversation .... The Sienna has its traction battery under the 1st row. The destroyed van was FWD, so no rear motor + orange cables. The fire did start in the rear, and there was nothing in the rear that had to do with the traction battery - I would say, the case is quite simple: not guilty!

By contrast, the 12V lead acid battery was indeed in the back and relatively close to the gas tank, which makes it potentially culpable, if it had been damaged and/or shorted simultaneously with the hypothetical rupturing of the gas tank.

 

So glad your family is safe...
That is a miracle.....


Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

Moderator........uggggg.......time to move on. Hopefully a cause of ignition will be found and the original poster will up date us.

 

OP.

Please excuse all the off topic back and forth.

Genuinely relieved that Family is ok. Do get check ups to make sure no after effect injuries as have seen many times.

As a lower priority, if and when cause is determined, please post.

 

you can both quit arguing here, we can see that the HV battery is not burned up, its under the driver/passenger seats, and the front half of the van looks rather unburned compared to the rear, and the fire started in the rear. Given that the majority of the fire was in the rear, I suspect a gas tank puncture, and then the vapors getting ignited by sparks from the collision. This can literally happen to every gasoline car on the road, and i would bet that the NHTSA is already investigating it, and even trying and replicate it to see if they can figure it out. If anyone has looked at where the tank is, its pretty packed in there, and would not take much deforming to put something sharp into it. it is a plastic tank, and it should deform instead of crack, but shit happens in a collision.

that said, the tiny battery in the back isn't actually all that energy dense, im pretty sure its a group35 AGM, and its like 400 CCA(I can look). I could convert this to watt or amp hours, but the point is, is that in a rear end impact, the battery is likely to crack and lose its electrolite before it can start a fire, and there should be an insulator/sheet attached to the top of the battery(like in mine) to prevent it from shorting out if it somehow gets bounced around in there. That said, im just glad everyone is okay and got out without major injuries, and will look for the NHTSAs investigation. this is so new that its not posted on their site at all.

 

I agree with you, it's evident that the gasoline was the cause of the fire. And not the battery.

 

Why doesn’t everyone do the sensible thing and wait for the report as to what cased the fire (by the experts) to come out.
Much more importantly
Glad to hear your family is safe.

Can’t blame you for not being in a rush to buy another with what has happened.

 

The Sienna Hybrid battery is 288 volts and can easily have caused this fire.

 

Re: photo of fire damaged van, why does the bottom caption say "Car Wheel Tire Automotive Fire". Did fire originate due to a tire failure connected to the collision?

 

I think this may be your-, or OP's browser trying to interpret the contents of the picture. Artificial Intelligence, you know . If there are any Gen Y-ers or better on the forum, they can explain this more elegantly.

 

My God... that's terrifying. Makes me rethink keeping my sliding door child locks on at all times. Glad everyone is okay. Following this post to get updates when the cause is determined.

 

That looks bad, glad your family is okay.

A lot of German IC cars routinely have their 12 volt batteries in the trunk or under seats, close to the gas tank. Don't think it's a fire problem.

 

Glad to hear all were able to get out of the vehicle. Looking underneath mine, I see the fuel tank filler line is in close proximity to the rear suspension frame. If you still have access to the wreckage, you might look underneath it to see if the suspension frame was pushed forward into the area of the fuel tank filler hose. If you hear any investigation results, please post.