Share this @internewscast.com
A college student killed in a Tesla Cybertruck crash was trapped inside the vehicle as it burst into flames due to a design flaw involving its doors, a lawsuit has claimed.
Krysta Michelle Tsukahara, 19, was one of three who died when the vehicle smashed into a tree at high speed in Piedmont, California, last November.
Her parents have now launched legal action, alleging that Tesla, led by Elon Musk, knew about the design flaw for years but failed to fix it.
Krysta, a second-year student at Savannah College of Art and Design, along with friends Soren Dixon, 19, who was driving, and Jack Nelson, 20, were all killed in the crash after the vehicle caught fire.
A fourth passenger was injured but survived.
Carl and Noelle Tsukahara first filed a lawsuit against the carmaker in April and have now amended it with a detailed 36-page wrongful death claim.
According to the suit, Krysta initially suffered only minor injuries, but when the Cybertruck’s battery ignited, she died from burns and smoke inhalation.
The complaint highlights that the vehicle’s battery-powered doors can fail if the power cuts out, and that Krysta was unable to escape because the manual release was too difficult to locate.
Krysta Michelle Tsukahara, a second-year student at Savannah College of Art and Design, was one of three who died following the crash last November in Piedmont, California
All three were recent graduates of Piedmont High School who had returned home for Thanksgiving break when the crash occurred
Nelson, left, and Dixon, right, who were stars of the Piedmont HS Lacrosse team, both died in the collision
The teenager ‘suffered unimaginable pain and emotional distress’ while trapped in the rear of the burning vehicle, the lawsuit states.
Speaking to The New York Times, her father said his daughter’s life could have been saved if it had been easier to exit the car.
He told KTVU Fox 2: ‘Krysta was a bright, kind, and accomplished young woman with her whole life ahead of her.
‘We’ve had to endure not only the loss of our daughter, but the silence surrounding how this happened and why she couldn’t get out.
‘This company is worth a trillion dollars, how can you release a machine that’s not safe in so many ways?’
Family lawyer Roger Dreyer added: ‘This lawsuit is about truth and accountability.
‘The design of this vehicle failed Krysta. There was no functioning, accessible manual override or emergency release for her to escape. Her death was preventable.’
All three victims were recent graduates of Piedmont High School who had returned home for Thanksgiving.
A fourth passenger, Jordan Miller, was the sole survivor after a witness used a tree branch to smash a window and pull him to safety.
Dixon, who was behind the wheel at the time, was found to have cocaine in his system and a blood alcohol level of 0.195 – more than twice the legal limit.
The California Highway Patrol’s preliminary investigation concluded that alcohol, drug impairment, and excessive speed caused the driver to lose control.
The Daily Mail has approached Tesla for comment on the allegations made in the lawsuit.
It comes after a similar incident took place last month in Western Germany which saw a shop-owner desperately attempt to free a man and two children from a burning Tesla after its retractable door handles failed to open, but to no avail.
The tragic accident took place in Villigst on September 14 after the vehicle drove off the road while attempting to overtake another car in the village, according to police.
The Tesla crashed into a tree and burst into flames. Three people trapped inside were burned alive, while another child, aged nine, was able to escape and rushed to hospital.
Speaking to local media at the time, eyewitness Roman Jedrzejewski said he desperately tried to open the door using the vehicle’s retractable handles but was unable to.
Jedrzejewski, who runs a paint shop which is located directly opposite the site of the crash, was working when he suddenly heard ‘really loud braking noises’ and ‘really loud squealing tires’ before hearing an explosive bang.
The shop owner says he noticed smoke rising from the other side of the street and grabbed a fire extinguisher with no hesitation and ran towards the burning vehicle.
He tried to put the fire out, but he said the extinguisher ‘didn’t help’.
‘I wanted to save people’, he said, but he soon realised that he wouldn’t be able to get the victims out of the vehicle.
‘The car was hanging halfway in a tree at head height, and the front was burning. But they just couldn’t get it open; I wanted to pull the children out’.
Despite his desperate attempts to free the victims, however, Jedrzejewski is haunted by the fact he was not able to save them.
And in August, a Florida jury also decided that the family of a dead college student who was killed by a runaway Tesla should be awarded more than £178million in damages.
