Tesla is being sued by the family of a 19-year-old who died in a Cybertruck crash last year, claiming its door design prevented her escape. Art student Krysta Tsukahara was in the back of the vehicle driven by Soren Dixon, who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The truck hit a tree in a suburb of the San Francisco Bay Area and burst into flames. The suit was filed Thursday in Alameda County Superior Court by her parents, Carl and Noelle Tsukahara. In the submitted documents they allege she died of burns and smoke inhalation, despite minor injuries from the impact itself. She “suffered unimaginable pain and emotional distress,” they claim, according to The New York Times. The suit says “she’d be alive today,” were it not for the door mechanism used in the vehicles. The Tsukaharas said the truck “lacked a functional, accessible, and conspicuous manual door release mechanism, fail-safe, or other redundant system for emergency.” It comes on the heels of a new probe launched by federal auto safety regulators into safety concerns surrounding the company’s electronic door mechanisms. Three people died in the crash, with one person saved when someone from another vehicle smashed the front window with a branch. The Daily Beast has contacted Tesla for comment.
Read it at The New York Times
