Doors Fail to Operate After Collision, Trapping Occupants
"Company Knew of Battery and Door Design Risks but Took No Action," Plaintiffs Claim
Claims have been raised in the United States that Tesla vehicle doors failed to open, trapping occupants in flames and resulting in fatalities. The bereaved family argues that a design flaw in the vehicle caused the tragedy and has filed a lawsuit against Tesla.
According to foreign media outlets such as Bloomberg and Reuters on November 3 (local time), the children of Jeffrey and Michelle Bauer, who died in an accident last year, have filed a lawsuit against Tesla, stating that a design defect in the vehicle led to their parents' deaths.
According to the complaint, the Tesla Model S that the Bauer couple was riding in caught fire after crashing into a tree while driving on a road outside Madison, Wisconsin, on November 1 last year. All five occupants were unable to escape and died in the fire.
The family's legal team argued in the complaint that "Tesla's design created a highly foreseeable risk that survivors of a collision would become trapped inside a burning vehicle."
They also pointed out that Tesla was aware of the risk that the electric vehicle's lithium-ion battery pack could catch fire after a collision and that the door design was dangerous, but the company failed to make improvements.
According to reports, if the low-voltage battery that operates the Tesla vehicle’s windows or doors is damaged in a crash, the electronic doors may stop functioning, requiring manual operation. However, many drivers and passengers are not aware of the location of the manual release, making escape difficult.
A similar lawsuit has already been filed in the suburbs of San Francisco. The families of two college students who died in a Tesla Cybertruck crash and fire in November last year also filed a lawsuit against Tesla, claiming that the doors failed to open, trapping the victims inside the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it had received numerous reports regarding doors failing to open on 2021 Model Y vehicles and launched a preliminary investigation in mid-September.
Reported cases included incidents where parents, after exiting the vehicle, were unable to reopen the rear doors to retrieve their children from the back seat. Some vehicle owners reported that they had to break the windows themselves to open the doors.
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