Family of 19-year-old killed in fatal crash sues Tesla, citing faulty cybertruck door

The California family of teenager Krysta Tsukahara has filed for wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla on Thursday, October 2. The 19-year-old died in November 2024 in Piedmont, California, after a Cybertruck crashed into a tree and was engulfed in fire. The lawsuit alleges that Krysta did not die from the impact of the crash, but from the suffocation of smoke and fire because of being trapped in the car.

According to a NewYork Times report, Krysta was a backseat passenger when the car at high speed, smashed into a tree. Soren Dixon, 19 and Jack Nelson, 20, died in the crash. Another occupant, Jordan Miller, 20, survived after rescuers broke the window.

The toxicology report following the crash reveals that all three occupants who died had cocaine and alcohol in their systems.

The lawsuit cited by Newyork Times alleged that Krysta had only picked minor injuries from the crash. But the electric car lost power due to the crash, and the manual override/ mechanical release for the car was inaccessible or hard to find. Krysta could not escape and suffered 'unimaginable pain' from burns and smoke inhalation, and eventually died.

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Another setback for Tesla, car door design under scrutiny

Tesla's door design is being blamed for what might have been a survival crash into a fatal accident. “Tesla knows that it’s happened and that it’s going to happen, and they are doing nothing but selling the car with a system that entraps people and doesn’t provide a way of extraction,” said Tsukahara family attorney Roger Dreyer.

The issues with Tesla's doors had been under scrutiny previously. Another incident involving Tesla's Model S in 2016 saw a Software engineer, Kevin McCarthy, dying in an identical crash and being trapped in the car. The company had also settled with another issue related to a driver assistance system, which led to a fatal accident, killing one and injuring many.

“This company is worth a trillion dollars,” Mr Tsukahara said, referring to Tesla. “How can you release a machine that’s not safe in so many ways?”

Electric cars are not easily inflammable compared to gasoline as they do not have fuel inside the vehicle, but in the case it catches fire, it spreads rapidly, is hard to extinguish and burns longer. These fires are rare, but they're related to lithium-ion battery packs, which can trigger intense heat and toxic smoke.

This is the latest blow to Tesla's electronic door handles and emergency release mechanisms. The Cybertruck experienced a massive recall in 2024-25 affecting almost 46,000 vehicles due to the same concerns. It had already discontinued the cheapest model of the Cybertruck variant. According to the NYT report, Tesla claims to have been working on newer designs to make mechanical override more accessible in the case of a power outage.