Ever since a battery pack from a 2012 Chevrolet Volt caught fire weeks after it was subjected to tough National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tests in a laboratory, critics of General Motor’s plug-in hybrid have been quick to question its safety credentials

But after a Toyota Camry hit a parked Chevrolet Volt in the Sedate town of Geneseo, New York, after failing to stop at an intersection, there’s little doubt that the Chevrolet Volt is safe. 

According to local news, the accident occurred at 1am on May 18, when the 22-year old driver of the Toyota Camry sped through the intersection, crossed a ditch and impacted the Volt, which was parked next to a 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee on the owners’ driveway.

The impact was so violent, it pushed both the Volt and the Jeep an estimated 25 feet in a lateral direction, and threw debris some 150 feet from the impact.

2012 Chevrolet Volt

2012 Chevrolet Volt

It also damaged the owners’ home, destroying part of the garage and even cracking plaster on walls on the other side of the home.

All three cars were destroyed, but the Volt, which was hit first, suffered the most damage. 

With its engine bay, windshield pillar and roof pillars crushed, the Volt is almost unrecognizable after it was hit by the flying Camry.  But even though the collision was at speeds rarely seen in a traffic accident and the Camry’s engine caught fire immediately after the crash, the Volt’s battery pack appears intact. 

It’s a shame to see a brand new car destroyed in such a violent crash, but it does send at least one positive message about the Volt: just like a regular car, it didn’t explode simply because it was hit. 

Although all three cars were destroyed in the accident, not to mention substantial property damage sustained, the driver of the Camry was taken to hospital with concussion and a fractured hip. 

“It was just material things which were damaged. Everything can be put back together. Human life is more important than material things,”  Stanley Johnson, the Volt’s owner,  mused to the local press. 

And we have to agree.

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