College students burned to death inside Cybertruck after doors sealed shut from crash: lawsuit

Three California college students were killed in a car crash when the Cybertruck they were traveling in malfunctioned, trapping them inside the burning vehicle, according to recent lawsuits. One of the suits alleged that a college student was not able to escape the car despite surviving the crash, because the truck lost power, causing the door release to malfunction.

The parents of Krysta Tsukahara, 19, and Jack Nelson, 20, have sued Tesla for their children's deaths. Two others were in the car at the time. The driver, Soren Dixon, 19, and passenger Jordan Miller were also in the truck when it crashed. At the time of the accident, all four reportedly had cocaine, alcohol, and other substances in their system. Dixon was not able to escape with his life. Miller was able to get out when a witness smashed the windshield of the car with a branch, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tsukahara died from smoke inhalation as well as burns. Doors on Tesla Cybertrucks are powered by a 12-volt battery, which can stop working if the power of the vehicle is cut in a crash, according to the lawsuit.

“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 lawyer for Tsukahara's family, Roger Dreyer, said. The lawsuit was filed in Alameda County Superior Court.

In the lawsuit, the parents cite issues with the door system in Tesla cars that have been publicized. The parents accused Tesla of having a “conscious disregard” for safety in the design of the door system. The lawsuit alleged that because the handleless door design uses a button, it was likely to fail in a crash and the car “lacked a functional, accessible, and conspicuous manual door release mechanism [or] fail-safe."

Both Tsukahara and Nelson's parents are filing for wrongful death, but are not seeking specified damages. Dreyer added, "[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.”