For one Tesla owner in Shanghai, range anxiety was the least of the day’s worries.
On Monday morning, a driver was nearly struck by a giant, falling glass panel just as he was alighting from his Tesla electric car outside the 121-story Shanghai Tower, China’s tallest building and the second-tallest in the world.
Workers changing a damaged window 76 stories above dropped the 2.4-metre-by-1.2-metre (7.9-foot-by-3.9-foot) pane, which plummeted down and shattered on Dongtai Road, a Shanghai Tower spokeswoman told China Real Time in a statement.
The window’s glass shards injured the driver’s leg, the spokeswoman said, adding that the Tesla wasn’t damaged. China Real Time was unable to reach the driver for comment.
Some of China’s largest cities are in the midst of a building boom in which ever-rising property prices are fueling demand for commercial and residential towers. Yet the surge in construction has been accompanied by growing concerns over whether safety measures at building sites are adequate for both workers and passers-by.
In the statement, the Shanghai Tower spokeswoman said that a preliminary investigation had found that the incident was caused by workers from Shenyang Yuanda Aluminum Group who had mishandled the replacement of the damaged window.
Addressing skepticism about the quality of the glass panel used, the Shanghai Tower said the window had been damaged during installation and had to be replaced, and that it has so far not seen any incidents of glass windows breaking spontaneously.
It added that these windows had been tested against typhoons and the winter cold last year.
“We will take further steps to ensure safety and have set up a team to investigate the cause of this incident,” the statement said.
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