Four Killed in Fiery Tesla Crash Were Trapped by Electronic Door Handles

12 Nov 2024, 16:23 by Lucas Nolan · Breitbart

Four young friends tragically lost their lives when they were trapped inside a burning Tesla Model Y in Canada. Now, additional details of the crash are emerging, including that the car’s electronic door handles were disabled when the electric vehicle lost power.

The Daily Mail reports that a horrific crash in Toronto last month resulted in the deaths of four friends who were unable to escape their burning Tesla Model Y due to the fire disabling the car’s electronic door handles. The sole survivor was only able to escape after a heroic man employee smashed a window with a metal pole and helped her from the burning EV.

The four victims have been identified as Neelraj Gohil, his sister Ketaba Gohil, Jay Sisodiya, and Digvijay Patel.

Rick Harper, the postal worker who rescued the surviving woman, told the Toronto Star that she frantically told him she “couldn’t open the doors” from inside the wrecked vehicle. Tesla cars use electronic buttons to open the doors rather than traditional handles. If power is lost in a crash, the doors can become inoperable.

“I would assume the young lady would have tried to open the door from the inside, because she was pretty desperate to get out,” Harper said. “I don’t know if that was the battery or what. But she couldn’t get out.”

According to Harper, the smoke from the fire was so thick that he was unaware there were other occupants still trapped inside as the woman scrambled out head-first after he broke the window. It remains unknown if the other victims were also attempting to escape the burning vehicle.

Police reported that the Tesla was traveling at high speed before it crashed into a guardrail. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.

While Tesla boasts about the safety of its vehicles, critics point out that the electronic door handles have a design flaw. There is a manual release in case of emergencies, but it is not well-publicized. It requires removing a panel and pulling a cable, which crash victims may not be able to easily locate if they are injured or panicked.

In a previous Canadian Tesla fire, the driver kicked out a window to escape the vehicle when his door handle also failed. That driver was also either unaware of the manual release or too panicked to attempt to operate the backup system.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) currently has nine open investigations into the Tesla Model Y for various issues ranging from unexpected braking to unintended acceleration. This tragic case raises further questions about the safety risks of the car’s electronic door handles in the event of accidents that result in loss of power.