Two separate families sued Tesla on Thursday over its door design, alleging it prevented their college-aged children from escaping a burning Cybertruck after a crash last November.
The parents of 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara and 20-year-old Jack Nelson each filed suit against the electric vehicle maker in a California court, arguing that Tesla’s electric door handles became nonfunctional in the crash.
“This case arises from catastrophic design defects in the Tesla Cybertruck that turned a survivable crash into a fatal fire,” the Nelson family lawsuit reads.
Tsukahara and Nelson were riding in a Cybertruck with 19-year-old Soren Dixon and another passenger in November 2024 when they crashed. Both Tsukahara and Nelson survived the initial crash but died in the fire that erupted afterward. Dixon was also killed, while the fourth passenger survived.
After the car’s electronic door handles failed in the crash, rescuers were unable to open the door from the outside. A manual backup release inside the car “was concealed beneath the map pocket liner at the bottom of the door,” which the Nelson family argues was not feasible to use in the wake of a crash.
“These defects created a foreseeable and unreasonable risk of occupant entrapment and death in the event of a collision resulting in power loss, rendering the vehicle a death trap,” the Tsukahara family lawsuit reads.
The families argue that Tesla was well aware of these issues, following previous incidents in which its door handles failed to work.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in September that it was opening an investigation into the doors on Tesla’s Model Y cars after several reports of the handles becoming inoperable. Tesla also recalled more than 46,000 Cybertrucks in March after identifying a defect that can cause a panel of the pickup truck to fly off.
The Hill has reached out to Tesla for comment.
