The growth of electric vehicles raises safety concerns about accidents and damage to infrastructure

CALIFORNIA (FOX26) — They haven’t taken over California’s highways yet, but we’re seeing more and more electric vehicles on the road.

According to the Energy Department, California has 1,200,000 electric vehicles.

What may surprise you is how EVs outweigh standard cars with combustible engines.

It’s amazing what a 7,000 pound electric vehicle can do with a guardrail going 55 miles per hour.

The University of Nebraska Lincoln is crashing cars at its traffic safety facility in the Midwest.

Please note that battery electric vehicles are very safe in the tests for which they are designed. Both were evaluated against federal standards, tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said professor Ron Faller of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

In another test, it is startling to see what happens after the truck hits the barrier.

He backed up a few feet, but the truck didn’t jump or break through the concrete.

We were not surprised. If you have more energy and more momentum in a collision with a heavier vehicle, that particular barrier will experience greater displacement and more damage, as he also experienced, Faller said.

Although the crash did not surprise the investigation director, it concerns Fresno Assemblyman Jim Patterson.

When I watched the test video I was absolutely amazed. Here’s a device so heavy and dangerous it could destroy a K-rail, Patterson said.

Professor Faller believes it is still too early in testing electric vehicles to draw any conclusions.

what he did notice when the car crashed was the g-force measured by a built-in sensor.

Typically, the weight of our vehicles, with similar barriers, drives accelerations of somewhere between 10 and 16 g. I’m just throwing out a number, but within that range, Faller said.

Professor Faller says the limit is 20.4.

In our sedan test with battery electric vehicles, we achieved lateral acceleration when crashing into occupants of 32 g, which is more than 50% above our allowable tolerance, Faller said.

Faller calls the number alarming, but says the sensor reading cannot determine whether the people in the car will be seriously injured.

Patterson, vice chairman of the Utility and Energy Committee, believes it’s time for the FBI to get involved.

And I really think, given this evidence, I think the National Transportation Safety folks need to do some serious crash testing on these very heavy and very dangerous electric vehicles, Patterson said.

Professor Faller says it is unknown whether all electric vehicles will behave the same as the vehicles they tested in Nebraska.

There are many more years of investigations and research to be done before we can say anything. We’re just getting started.

It will take three to five years before Professor Faller says they have enough research to better address any safety issues.