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 A Tesla Model X is displayed at the Paris Motor Show in Paris on Sept. 30, 2016. The base model has a 237 mile range and starts at $79,500, according to Tesla. (Photo: IAN LANGSDON, EPA) 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO — The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday that it was sending four investigators to probe a Tesla Model S crash that killed two Florida teens when it hit a concrete wall and burst into flames. 
 
 Two Fort Lauderdale high school students were killed in the crash Tuesday night, while a third 18-year-old was ejected from the vehicle and taken to a local hospital, according to Miami's NBC 6. 
 
 The car's speed — and not the electric automaker's partial self-driving Autopilot system — is considered the main culprit in the accident, according to both the NTSB and Tesla. The 2014 Model S was in a residential zone with a 35-mph limit. 
 
 Instead, the decision to a launch an investigation centers on the fire that erupted after the battery-powered sedan hit the wall. 
 
 “NTSB has a long history of investigating emerging transportation technologies, such as lithium-ion battery fires in commercial aviation, as well as a fire involving the lithium-ion battery in a Chevrolet Volt in collaboration with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a statement. 
 
 "The goal of these investigations is to understand the impact of these emerging transportation technologies when they are part of a transportation accident," he said. 
 
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 Tesla, based south of San Francisco in Palo Alto, Calif., did not respond to an immediate request for comment, but issued a statement to NBC 6 saying that it had so far not been able to retrieve a vehicle identification number which would allow the company to access the car's computer logs. 
 
 "However, had Autopilot been engaged it would have limited the vehicle’s speed to 35 mph or less on this street, which is inconsistent with eyewitness statements and the damage to the vehicle," Tesla's statement said. 
 
 This is the second time in recent months that a Tesla accident has drawn the attention of the NTSB, which is still investigating a March Model X crash in Mountain View, Calif., that killed its driver. That vehicle was in Autopilot mode when it hit a concrete barrier. 
 
 In this Friday March 23, 2018 photo provided by KTVU, emergency personnel work a the scene where a Tesla electric SUV crashed into a barrier on U.S. Highway 101 in Mountain View, Calif. The National Transportation Safety Board has sent two investigators to look into a fatal crash and fire Friday in California that involved a Tesla electric SUV. The agency says on Twitter that it's not clear whether the Tesla Model X was operating on its semi-autonomous control system called Autopilot at the time. Investigators will study the fire that broke out after the crash. (KTVU via AP) ORG XMIT: FX101 (Photo: AP) 
 
 Tesla said the driver ignored repeated warnings from the car to take back control. But in reporting details of the crash on its website, it raised the ire of the NTSB, which said the release of such information was premature. The NTSB subsequently removed Tesla as a party in its investigation; Tesla said it chose to withdraw to defend its position. 
 
 That fatal Model X crash also sparked a fire that took hours to put out, according to reports. 
 
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 Experts say that once ignited, lithium-ion batteries — the same kind found in laptops and cellphones, though in far smaller quantities than cars — have a tendency to ignite in a chain reaction and burn considerably hotter than the lead-acid batteries in conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. 
 
 The latest NTSB investigation into a Tesla crash is likely to cause more grief for a company trying to ramp up production of its mission-critical Model 3 entry-level electric sedan. But some industry observers wonder whether the spotlight is warranted. 
 
 "Based on annual statistics, about 500 gas-powered cars catch on fire, and around 100 people die on U.S. roads every day," Fred Lambert, founder of electric vehicle site Electrek, wrote Wednesday. "Those stories generally never go past local news outlets, but when a Tesla vehicle is involved, it suddenly makes national news." 
 
 Follow USA TODAY tech writer Marco della Cava on Twitter. 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2I1CPnH ||||| The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate a deadly Tesla crash and fire that killed two Florida high school students, the agency said. 
 
 Barrett Riley and Edgar Monserratt, both seniors, were traveling near an area known as “dead man's curve” in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday night when their all-electric Tesla Model S hit a wall and burst into flames, authorities said. 
 
 The boys, 18, died while trapped inside the burning vehicle, according to witnesses. One onlooker said he saw the victims moving, struggling to escape from the flames, but no one could help them break free. 
 
 A backseat passenger, identified as 18-year-old Alexander Berry of Fort Lauderdale, was thrown from the car and taken to a hospital with undisclosed injuries, according to ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV. 
 
 WPLG 
 
 Speed may have been a factor in the crash, the NTSB said Wednesday. Its investigation will primarily focus on the emergency response in relation to the electric vehicle battery fire, the agency said, adding that it had plans to have a team of four investigators in South Florida by Wednesday night. 
 
 “The goal of these investigations is to understand the impact of these emerging transportation technologies when they are part of a transportation accident,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said in a statement Wednesday. 
 
 Tesla released a statement Wednesday, saying, it was “working to establish the facts of the incident” and offered its “full cooperation” to local authorities. The car’s autopilot feature was not engaged at the time, Telsa said. 
 
 WPLG 
 
 The teens, both students at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, were a few weeks away from graduation. Riley, the driver, was set to attend Indiana’s Purdue University in the fall, while Monserratt was headed to Boston College in Massachusetts. 
 
 "These two members of our senior class should be finishing their [advanced placement] exams, celebrating things like prom and their upcoming graduation," Pine Crest president Dana Markham said in a statement Wednesday. "Instead, we are mourning their passing. There really are no words to express how deeply this has affected our entire community." 
 
 Larry Groshart, who said he witnessed the crash, told WPLG the car appeared to traveling between 50 and 60 mph. 
 
 "I saw the car coming too fast quietly, but I could hear the tire roar,” Groshart said. [It] bounced off the first wall, sideswiped it, then hit that corner and immediately burst into flames and moved that way, burning all the way, and it never stopped burning until it was burned up." 
 
 ABC News' Matthew Foster contributed to this report.
– Two teens were killed in Florida Tuesday night when a 2014 Tesla Model S went off the road, ran into a concrete wall, and burst into flames—and now the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating, making this the fourth accident involving Tesla vehicles that the NTSB is probing, the Wall Street Journal reports. While two of the other accidents involved Autopilot, Tesla's driver assistance feature, the NTSB doesn't anticipate Autopilot being part of this probe; rather, it's focusing on the fire and the electric car's lithium-ion battery. One of the other NTSB investigations also focuses on a battery fire. Local police believe speed was a factor in Tuesday's crash, which happened on a stretch of roadway locals call "Dead Man's Curve." A yellow light warns drivers to slow to 25mph before a sharp left curve in the road; a witness tells ABC News the car appeared to be going 50mph to 60mph when it crashed. A third passenger was thrown from the vehicle but survived. "Everything we have seen thus far indicates a very high-speed collision and that Autopilot was not engaged," says a Tesla spokesperson, noting that high-speed crashes can be fiery "regardless of the type of car." A spokesperson tells USA Today that "had Autopilot been engaged it would have limited the vehicle's speed to 35mph or less on this street."