LOS ANGELES, April 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Thursday announced the removal of leading U.S. electric car maker Tesla as a party to its investigation into a deadly crash in California last month.
The unusual move came two days after Tesla released its strongest statement yet, blaming the driver of the crashed car, Apple engineer Walter Huang, for what happened.
The 38-year-old Huang died on March 23 in a crash and vehicle fire in Mountain View, California, while on his way to work. Tesla confirmed that Huang's Tesla sedan that hit a concrete divider and two other cars was on autopilot mode.
Huang's family has said they are exploring legal options against Tesla.
The NTSB said it took this action because Tesla violated the party agreement by releasing investigative information before it was vetted and confirmed by the NTSB.
"Such releases of incomplete information often lead to speculation and incorrect assumptions about the probable cause of a crash, which does a disservice to the investigative process and the traveling public," the NTSB said.
"It is unfortunate that Tesla, by its actions, did not abide by the party agreement," NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt said in the announcement.
"We decided to revoke Tesla's party status and informed Mr. Musk (Elon Musk, CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla) in a phone call last evening and via letter today," he added.
Sumwalt said while the NTSB understands the demand for information that parties face during an NTSB investigation, "uncoordinated releases of incomplete information do not further transportation safety or serve the public interest."
Removals from NTSB party agreements are rare. In 2014 the agency revoked party status for United Parcel Service (UPS) and a pilots' union in the probe of a crash featuring a UPS cargo plane after each side made public comments about the circumstances of the accident.
"Tesla withdrew from the party agreement with the NTSB because it requires that we not release information about Autopilot to the public, a requirement which we believe fundamentally affects public safety negatively," Tesla said in a counter-statement to media.