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A California college student was burned alive when her ride, a Tesla Cybertruck, became a deathtrap — locking her and pals inside after the vehicle crashed and went up in flames, according to a pair of recent lawsuits.
Three college students, including 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara, were killed in the early-morning crash last November when their electronic vehicle burst into flames after striking a retaining wall and a tree in Piedmont, Calif.
The Cybertruck driver, Soren Dixon, 19, and passenger Jack Nelson, 20, also died in the fiery Nov. 27 crash. A fourth passenger, Jordan Miller, was able to escape after an onlooker smashed the windscreen with a tree branch.
But Tsukahara reportedly survived the initial crash and was fully conscious, but couldn’t escape the burning vehicle after the Cybertruck lost power, causing its electronic door release system to fail, according to a lawsuit filed by parents Carl and Noelle Tsukahara and seen by the San Francisco Chronicle.
The teen died of smoke inhalation and burns after onlookers were unable to pull her and the other occupants from the truck, according to the lawsuit, which also sought damages from Dixon’s estate and that of the vehicle’s owner.
Tesla doors are powered by a 12-volt battery, which can fail if the vehicle loses power during a crash, and the emergency manual interior door release is notoriously difficult to find, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in Alameda County Superior Court.
“It’s just a horror story. 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,” the family attorney Roger Dreyer told the Chronicle.
The lawsuit includes more than 30 examples of publicized alleged problems with Tesla’s door systems and accuses the Elon Musk-owned company of showing a “conscious disregard” for consumer safety, having known about the issue for years.
Tesla’s high-tech handleless door design, which opens and shuts at the push of a button, made it susceptible to failure in the result of a crash and “lacked a functional, accessible, and conspicuous manual door release mechanism [or] fail-safe,” according to the lawsuit.
Tesla — which was added to the Tsukaharas’ lawsuit on Thursday — did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Nelson’s parents, Todd and Stannye, filed their own lawsuit on Thursday, also suing Tesla.
Both wrongful death suits are seeking unspecified punitive damages against the electric vehicle giant.
All four victims had cocaine, alcohol and other substances in their systems at the time, and impaired driving and speeding were both factors in the crash, the California Highway Patrol previously stated, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
But the Tsukaharas’ attorney believes the family still has a “very, very strong case” against Tesla.
“They [Tesla] will want to blame Mr. Dixon, anybody but themselves. But this vehicle absolutely should not have entombed these individuals and my clients’ daughter. It’s our way of holding the wrongdoer accountable and correcting bad conduct,” Dreyer said.
The Cybertruck, which was launched with great fanfare in November 2023, has been plagued since the start, with more than half a dozen recalls and plummeting sales in the past year.
In September, it was announced that Tesla was under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after owners of the 2021 Model Y SUVs reported that the doors wouldn’t open, and in some cases, parents were forced to smash the windows to free their children.
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