Khaberni - A 19-year-old university student met her death in a horrific accident after being trapped inside a "Tesla Cybertruck" that caught fire after colliding with a tree, an incident that reignited the debate about the flaws in Tesla car door designs.
According to the lawsuit filed by the victim's parents, Carl and Noel Tsukahara, their daughter, Krista Michelle Tsukahara, a second-year student at Savannah College of Art and Design, was one of three young people who died in the accident that occurred last November in Piedmont, California, while a fourth passenger survived with serious injuries, as reported by "Daily Mail".
The lawsuit states that Krista did not suffer serious injuries, but died from suffocation and burning after the car battery caught fire. She was unable to escape due to a malfunction in the car's electric door system.
The lawyers pointed out that the opening system of the doors in Tesla cars depends on electric power, making it impossible to open in case of a power cut, and that the emergency manual release handle is "difficult to access," leaving the girl stuck in the back seat until she perished.
The family's lawyer, Roger Dreyer, stated that the case aims to unveil the truth and hold the company accountable, emphasizing that "Krista's death could have been avoided if the car had an effective emergency system."
The incident was not the first of its kind, as West Germany witnessed a similar accident last September when shop owners failed to save a man and two children from a burning Tesla car after the folding doors failed to open, resulting in three deaths, while a nine-year-old child survived.
In August, a jury in Florida issued a legal verdict requiring Tesla to pay over 178 million British pounds in compensation to the family of another university student who died in a similar accident due to a defect in the car's system.
Although Tesla has not yet issued an official comment on the new lawsuit, the case has brought the escalating controversy over the safety of the company's car designs, especially the electric door system, which has caused a series of fatal accidents in recent years, back into the spotlight.
