Tesla Facing Lawsuit Over Doors That Allegedly Trapped 5 People in Burning Vehicle
Tesla is facing a wrongful death lawsuit over allegations that faulty doors trapped five people inside a burning Model S. The suit claims the car’s lithium-ion battery pack caused the electronic door systems to fail.
The crash occurred last November when their 2016 Tesla went off the road and hit a tree in Verona, Wisconsin. After catching fire, the lawsuit claims, the doors became “useless.”
The lawsuit was filed in Dane County Circuit Court by family members of two of the five victims killed in a crash. It accuses Tesla of negligence, design defect, and wrongful death.
The lawsuit claims Tesla knew about previous fires, but chose to make a “conscious departure from known, feasible safety practices.” It also claims manual overrides for the doors were “hidden, unlabeled and impractical in an emergency.”
“No one should ever die in a vehicle after it’s crashed because it’s in a fire and you can’t get out,” attorney Andrew McDevitt told WMTV News. “These are unnecessary deaths.”
Tesla doors are being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
In addition to the Wisconsin lawsuit, Tesla is also being sued by families of two college students. They were also killed in a Tesla Cybertruck crash in California last November. That lawsuit also claims that the victims were trapped inside the burning vehicle because of of the failure of the door handles.
That lawsuit and other complaints have led the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to begin an investigation. The NHTSA wrote a letter to Tesla in October, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg.
Among the complaints cited by the NHTSA were a person who said they “strapped their son into their car seat and were then unable to get into the car after the 12-volt battery died.” In another complaint, someone said they were “forced to call 911 to have their son removed” from their vehicle.
Perhaps the most disturbing complaint came from a parent who said their 8-month-old child was trapped inside a Tesla for 30 minutes. This incident allegedly came on a day “with an indoor temperature exceeding 104 degrees Fahrenheit.” Paramedics responding to the scene recommended the child be taken to the hospital due to “concerning vital signs.”
