New York : Tesla Inc. was sued over a crash in Wisconsin last November that killed all five occupants of a Model S who allegedly became trapped in a fast-moving inferno when the doors wouldn’t open. The suit was filed on behalf of a couple who died when the four-door sedan hit a tree and caught on fire. Jeffrey Bauer, 54, and Michelle Bauer, 55, survived the initial impact, but were unable to escape because the doors locked them inside.
A nearby homeowner who called 911 said she could hear people screaming from within the vehicle, according to the lawsuit. A report by the local sheriff’s office said a cluster of bodies in the front seat suggested there may have been a struggle to escape. Tesla’s design choices created a highly foreseeable risk: that occupants who survived a crash would remain trapped inside a burning vehicle, lawyers for the children said in the complaint.
Tesla didn’t immediately return a request for comment. The suit was filed on Friday in state court in Wisconsin. Tesla’s door handles have drawn increased attention after a Bloomberg News investigation uncovered a series of incidents in which people were seriously injured or died after they were unable to open doors following a loss of power, particularly after crashes. The Wisconsin crash was one of several such incidents reviewed as part of the investigation.
The Dane County Sheriff’s Office determined that road conditions, excess speed, and impaired driving were factors that contributed to the cause of the crash. Regardless of the cause of a crash, the manufacturer’s obligation includes designing vehicles that permit timely escape and rescue in the event of fire, they said in the lawsuit, arguing that Tesla disregarded these principles, instead manufacturing vehicles prone to fires that ignite and spread rapidly upon impact — and from which escape depends on electronic systems that Tesla knew were liable to fail in precisely the conditions when escape is most critical: collision and fire.
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