Tesla is facing multiple lawsuits after three college students were killed in a car crash after a Cybertruck malfunctioned, which resulted in the passengers being “entombed” in the vehicle as it was burning.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 19-year-old Soren Dixon, 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara, and 20-year-old Jack Nelson were killed in a Tesla Cybertruck crash last year after they were trapped in the burning Cybertruck following its malfunction. The outlet noted that Tsukahara and Nelson’s parents have filed lawsuits against Tesla over the incident.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Tsukahara, Nelson, Dixon, and a fourth passenger, identified as Jordan Miller, were in the Cybertruck and reportedly had alcohol, cocaine, and other substances in their system at the time of the crash. According to the outlet, Miller was the only passenger who was able to escape with the help of a witness who smashed the car’s windshield with a branch.
While Tsukahara survived the initial crash and was conscious, she was not able to escape from the Tesla vehicle due to a failure in the electronic door release system, which is powered by 12-volt battery that can stop working properly if the vehicle loses power in a car crash, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
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“It’s just a horror story,” Roger Dreyer, the Tsukahara family’s lawyer, said. “Tesla knows that it’s happened and that it’s going to happen, and they are doing nothing but selling the car with a system that entraps people and doesn’t provide a way of extraction.”
“[Tesla] will want to blame Mr. Dixon, anybody but themselves. But this vehicle absolutely should not have entombed these individuals and my clients’ daughter,” Dreyer added. “It’s our way of holding the wrongdoer accountable and correcting bad conduct.”
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the lawsuit against Tesla points to multiple issues that have been documented with Tesla’s electronic door system and blames the electric vehicle company for having a “conscious disregard” for safety with regard to the system. The lawsuit argues that the handleless Tesla door design was likely to fail in a potential car crash and that the Cybertruck “lacked a functional, accessible, and conspicuous manual door release mechanism [or] fail-safe.”
The lawsuit states, “Due to the defective design of the subject vehicle, the collision and subsequent loss of electrical power caused the electronic door release system to fail. As a direct result, Decedent Krysta Michelle Tsukahara and the other occupants were unable to open the doors and were trapped inside the vehicle.”
