The children of a couple who died in a fiery car crash have filed a lawsuit against Tesla over the company's issue with faulty door handles, which was what kept the victims trapped inside the burning vehicle.
The incident occurred in November last year and involved a Model S Tesla that burst into flames, trapping and killing all five passengers inside. The parents of the children who filed the lawsuit were identified as 54-year-old Jeffrey Bauer and 55-year-old Michelle Bauer.
Children File Lawsuit Against Tesla Over Parents' Deaths
The couple survived the initial impact of the crash after the car slammed into a tree, but were unable to get out because the vehicle's doors locked them inside. Shortly after the incident, a nearby homeowner called 911 and said that she heard people screaming inside the burning car.
Additionally, the local sheriff's office said that a cluster of bodies was found in the front seat of the car. They said that this finding suggested that the victims were desperately trying to escape the burning vehicle, according to the New York Post.
Lawyers representing the victims' children wrote in the complaint that Tesla's design choices created a "highly foreseeable risk." This is that occupants who survived a crash would become trapped inside the vehicle while it is burning.
The recently filed legal challenge is the latest to accuse the electric vehicle manufacturer of negligence. It argues that Elon Musk's company was aware of the risk that a fire could kill a car's battery, which would prevent it from automatically unlocking the doors.
The incident also killed other passengers, identified as Josh and Tammy Stahl, who were both 48 years old, and Barry Sievers, who was 55 years old. The lawsuit added that other factors contributed to the tragic incident, the Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Faulty Door Handle Design
One of these is that the design of the car made it difficult for passengers to exit after a crash, as doors to the vehicle's backseat are typically able to be opened using buttons on the handles. These draw power from the car's low-voltage system.
A separate incident also resulted in a lawsuit against Tesla that involved two college students who died inside a Cybertruck crash in November last year in a San Francisco suburb. It resulted in the families of the victims suing the automaker over the door handle design as well.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disclosed in September that there was a probe into the possible defects in some Tesla doors. This announcement follows several reports that handles could fail, as per Aljazeera.
