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The number of victims of the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was limited by the vehicle’s reinforced exterior, police have said.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the blast had been directed “up through the truck” resulting in minimal damage to the surroundings.
Seven people were injured during the New Year’s Day incident, and the driver of the vehicle was killed. The man was later identified by authorities as U.S. Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger.
At a press conference on Wednesday, McMahill discussed the cause of the explosion, a combination of gasoline canisters and fireworks mortars, as well as the impact of the blast.
“As you can see… it looks like the exterior of that truck is completely intact as it sits there,” he said showing the damage. “The fact that this was a cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet, because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out.”
He added: “In fact you’ll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast, which they were parked directly in front of.”
The exterior of a Tesla Cybertruck is made of steel between 1.4mm and 1.8mm thick.
Tesla boss Elon Musk previously said that the company’s senior team were assisting with the investigation into the explosion and later confirmed that the Cybertruck’s telemetry (data gathering systems) were all working at the time of the incident.
McMahill also thanked Musk personally, saying that the tech billionaire had provided additional information about how the vehicle had reacted to the force of the blast.
The incident occurred around 8.40 a.m. Wednesday after Livelsberger pulled into the valet area of the Trump International Hotel on Las Vegas Blvd. It exploded roughly 20 seconds later, McMahill said.
Authorities said that Livelsberger was a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets. Reports of the explosion in Las Vegas came just hours after the deadly terror attack in New Orleans, which killed 14 people.
However, at a Thursday press conference in New Orleans, the FBI said there was no “definitive link” between the incidents, but that investigations were still ongoing.
