Tesla is facing a lawsuit from the parents of a 19-year-old college student from California who died in a deadly Cybertruck crash in late 2024. The parents filed the case in Alameda County Superior Court, claiming that when the vehicle hit a tree and caught fire, the doors stopped working and trapped their daughter inside, first reported by the New York Times. They argue she could not get out because of the way the truck was designed, and that Tesla’s choices made the vehicle dangerous in emergencies and played a direct role in her death.
Notably, the crash happened in November 2024 in Piedmont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Cybertruck, driven by 19-year-old Soren Dixon, was carrying four young people when it struck a retaining wall and then a tree, bursting into flames. Three of the passengers, including Dixon and Krysta Tsukahara, died in the crash. Only one person was rescued after someone following the truck smashed a window to pull them free.
The lawsuit filed by Tsukahara’s parents, Carl and Noelle, focuses on the design of the Cybertruck’s door system. Tesla’s doors are primarily electronic, powered by the vehicle’s 12-volt system. According to the complaint, once the battery was damaged in the collision, the electronic release failed, leaving the passengers unable to open the doors. While Tesla includes a manual override, the family argues it is hidden, confusing, and impossible to use in an emergency like a fire. For back seat passengers, it requires lifting out a rubber liner in the door’s storage pocket, finding a cable underneath, pulling it, and then pushing the door open. But the parents describe this process as unrealistic when the cabin is filled with smoke and flames.
The family claims that Krysta survived the initial crash and was alive after the impact, but was trapped as the fire spread. The lawsuit says she died from smoke inhalation and burns because she could not escape. They accuse Elon Musk-owned Tesla of putting style and technology ahead of basic safety, choosing a fancy electronic system over a reliable, accessible way to exit the vehicle in emergencies.
Importantly, this latest lawsuit comes at a time when federal regulators are already investigating the company’s door systems after years of complaints from drivers who reported being stuck when vehicles lost power. Recently, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also initiated a preliminary investigation into 174,000 Tesla Model Y cars from 2021 because of reported problems with their electronic door handles. Also, in February 2025, the EV giant recalled 380,000 US vehicles due to a power steering issue that made low-speed steering harder.
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