College Students Burned Alive After Tesla Cybertruck Doors Didn’t Open, Claims New Lawsuit
Elon Musk's electric vehicle company, Tesla, is facing two new lawsuits after deadly crashes involving its Cybertruck vehicles. The complaints claim the trucks' design turned accidents that could have been survivable into fiery deaths. Victims were trapped inside because the electronic doors failed, which left them with no way to escape.
The incidents that occurred in Piedmont last year involved four college students who had returned home for Thanksgiving. According to a report in Kron4, three students – Krysta Michelle Tsukahara, Jack Nelson and Soren Dixon – were burned to death inside the vehicle, while one student survived thanks to a passerby who managed to break a window.
Trapped In A Fiery Crash
The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of 19-year-old Tsukahara, who died in the fire on November 27, 2024. A second lawsuit represents 20-year-old Nelson, who sat next to her in the backseat.
“This case arises from catastrophic design defects in the Tesla Cybertruck that turned a survivable crash into a fatal fire. Jack survived the crash forces, and his impact injuries were minor," the Nelson suit said as quoted by Kron4.
All four students were home for the holiday when the crash occurred. Tsukahara, Nelson and Dixon died, and only one student survived after a good Samaritan broke a bulletproof window with a tree branch.
A passerby described Tsukahara's desperate attempts to escape. She tried to crawl from the backseat to the front to reach a broken front passenger window.
“I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire," the good Samaritan told California Highway Patrol officers. Attorneys said she was fully conscious during the incident and endured “unimaginable pain and emotional distress as she suffered from flames which consumed her."
Problems With Electronic Doors
The lawsuits focus on the Cybertruck's electronic doors, citing that the trucks rely on buttons inside the cabin and on exterior pillars, but these failed after the crash, possibly due to power loss or other damage. Without exterior handles, rescuers could not open the doors from the outside. Inside, a mechanical backup release exists but is hidden beneath the map pocket liner, which makes it extremely difficult to locate during smoke and fire.
The Nelson lawsuit states, “Jack Nelson did not die from the crash; he died because Tesla's design left him with no practical means of escape."
The lawsuit further stated that the Cybertruck's stainless steel “exoskeleton" and “armour glass" make the vehicle resistant to bullets but also prevent passengers or rescuers from breaking windows in case of emergency. Nelson, Tsukahara and Dixon were all recent graduates of Piedmont High School.
Past Door Issues
Tsukahara's attorneys highlighted that the original Tesla Model S had front door handles with both electronic and mechanical latches. Pulling the handle electronically opened the door when power was available and mechanically when power failed.
The attorneys, however, said that over the past decade, the company made and sold advanced vehicles without easy-to-use mechanical door handles that a normal person could quickly operate in an emergency.
“Tesla's history of defective door handles is particularly egregious because they knew from the outset how to design a system that avoided the hazard of power-loss entrapment," the lawsuit states.
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Both lawsuits allege that Tesla had been “on notice" for years about the door design. Customers and first responders reported the hazard of rear passengers being trapped after crashes.
The New York Post reported that in September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating after owners of Tesla Model Y SUVs said doors failed to open and, in some cases, parents had to break windows to rescue children.
Source: News18
Related Posts: Tesla Cybertruck lawsuit, Tesla Cybertruck safety, Tesla electronic door failure, Cybertruck crash victims, Tesla design defects, Cybertruck fire accident
