Summarised by Centrist
A 43-year-old man and two 9-year-old children were burned alive in Germany after their Tesla crashed into a tree, and rescuers were unable to open the car’s electronic doors, police said. Another child survived and was flown to hospital.
The tragedy on 7 September has renewed questions over Tesla’s retractable handles and electronic release system, which can fail when the car loses power.
Witness Roman Jedrzejewski said he ran to help with a fire extinguisher, but could not open the doors. “I wanted to save people. I tried to open the car, but that didn’t work either … Damn it, I didn’t help. It didn’t work,” he told Ruhr News.
Tesla vehicles are equipped with manual releases inside, but children may not be able to reach or operate them. Germany’s auto association had already warned last year that retractable handles posed a safety risk.
The accident comes just days after US regulators launched an investigation into 174,000 Model Y cars from 2021 following reports that electronic handles could become inoperative. Similar concerns arose in Toronto in 2023, when four people died after being trapped in a burning Tesla.
