Parents of college student killed in Tesla crash claim it was caused by one specific design flaw

The parents of a student who died in a Tesla car are suing the company, alleging the incident was caused by a ‘known’ fault in the vehicle’s design.

Last November, 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara, Jack Nelson, 20, and driver Soren Dixon, 19, died in a high-speed Cybertruck car crash.

People reported that the Tesla vehicle, owned by the Dixon estate, slammed into a tree in Piedmont, California.

Almost six months after filing their first suit in an attempt to get answers, Tsukahara’s parents, Carl and Noelle, submitted an amended wrongful death lawsuit on Thursday (October 2).

Multiple outlets, including the New York Times, have reported that the 36-page suit alleges that Tesla’s design for Cybertruck doors made it nearly impossible for Tsukahara to exit the vehicle, despite having sustained non-life-threatening injuries when the crash occurred.

A teenager died in a Cybertruck accident after the vehicle's battery caught fire (City of Piedmont)

The complaint was filed in the Alameda County Superior Court. It claims the student suffered minor injuries from the crash, but when the Cybertruck battery caught fire, she died from burns and smoke inhalation, as per the New York Times.

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that Cybertruck doors are powered by a 12-volt battery, which can fail if the vehicle loses power due to a crash.

The three passengers were allegedly prevented from exiting the vehicle due to an alleged design flaw - a concealed manual lever, the suit alleged.

In the lawsuit, Tsukahara’s mom and dad said their daughter suffered ‘unimaginable pain and emotional distress’ due to being trapped in the rear seat amid the vehicle fire.

"Krysta was a bright, kind, and accomplished young woman with her whole life ahead of her," said her father, Carl Tsukahara, per KTVU Fox 2.

“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.”

In an interview with the New York Times, he claimed: “Our life is never going to be the same, and there are other families just like us.”

The teens were killed in a Cybertruck accident (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Speaking about seeking unspecified punitive damages against Tesla, the grieving father added: “This company is worth a trillion dollars - how can you release a machine that's not safe in so many ways?"

UNILAD has contacted Tesla for further comment.

Family attorney Roger Dreyer has said the Tesla vehicle, which US customers first got their hands on in November 2023, had ‘failed’ his client’s child, who was studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

“There was no functioning, accessible manual override or emergency release for her to escape. Her death was preventable,” he alleged, as per KTVU Fox 2.

“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,” he claimed.

Dreyer added that the recently-submitted lawsuit was about ‘truth and accountability’.

As per ABC 7 News, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into reports of Cybertruck stuck doors last month.

The outlet reported that it is currently looking into complaints by drivers that after exiting their cars, they couldn't open back doors to get their children out and, in some cases, had to break the window to reach them.