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Video shows bus and truck colliding in Moscow, not two electric vehicles crashing in Canada
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Satellite imagery shows that this video was taken in Moscow, not Canada.
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Media reports of the explosion said it was caused by a truck containing gas cylinders colliding with a bus.
The video shows a fire in the middle of the road. Several explosions occur in quick succession and debris shoots off, trailing more fire. Another explosion follows seconds after, emitting a plume of dark smoke.
"Two electric vehicles in a crash in Canada," reads the video’s caption in a May 18 Facebook post. "Apparently fire fighters won’t go anywhere near an electric vehicle fire."
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Reverse-image search showed that this video has been around since at least July 2013, and the Facebook caption got the explosion’s location wrong. Keyword searches revealed that this video showed a crash in Moscow, not Canada.
Fact-checkers including Agence France-Presse, The Quint and Fact Crescendo have also debunked similar claims, reporting that the video shows a Moscow crash.
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On July 13, 2013, the date displayed in one dashcam video of the incident, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that an Isuzu truck carrying 119 gas cylinders collided with a bus, and the containers detonated upon crashing. The report did not say whether either vehicle was electric.
Multiple videos captured different angles of the incident. PolitiFact used satellite imagery from Google Earth Pro and Google Maps to verify that it took place in Moscow, on the road E115.
In the illustration below, every colored box represents matching features between the footage and the Google Maps location.
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(Screenshots from Facebook, Google Maps)
Features surrounding this section of the road matched features shown in the video, such as two tall buildings in the back and a covered structure on the right. The traffic signs are also similarly placed.
This video doesn’t show two electric vehicles colliding in Canada. We rate that claim False.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived), May 18, 2024
Google Earth Pro search
Google Maps search
Agence France-Presse, Highway explosion video misrepresented as EV collision, Aug. 3, 2023
The Quint, Fact-check: Does this video show an accident between two electric vehicles?, July 29, 2023
Fact Crescendo, Old video from Moscow shared as electric vehicle collision, Aug. 1, 2023
RIA Novosti, As a result of a truck accident on the Moscow Ring Road, 119 gas cylinders exploded (translated by Google), July 13, 2013
AiF-Moscow, More than 100 gas cylinders exploded as a result of a truck accident on the Moscow Ring Road, July 13, 2013
YouTube video, July 13, 2013
YouTube video, July 14, 2013
YouTube video, July 13, 2013
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Video shows bus and truck colliding in Moscow, not two electric vehicles crashing in Canada
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