They're visually divisive, and tied to one of the world's richest and most controversial men, but a lawsuit claims the Tesla Cybertruck became something else in one crash: a death trap.
A California college student, Krysta Tsukahara, 19, was burned alive when her Cybertruck locked her and two friends inside after they crashed into a tree. Then the battery caught fire and the doors wouldn't open due to a power failure in its electronic door device, according to a pair of recent lawsuits.
Tsukahara and her friends, Soren Dixon, 19, and Jack Nelson, 20, died in the fire sparked by the November, 2024, crash in Piedmont, Calif. An onlooker managed to smash the windshield with a tree branch to save a fourth passenger, Jordan Miller.
All four had cocaine, alcohol and other substances in their systems at the time, and impaired driving and speeding were both factors in the crash, per the California Highway Association.
“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 family’s attorney Roger Dreyer told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Both wrongful death suits are seeking unspecified monetary damages against Tesla.
Tsukahara's father told KTVU Fox 2: 'Krysta was a bright, kind, and accomplished young woman with her whole life ahead of her. 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.
"This company is worth a trillion dollars, how can you release a machine that's not safe in so many ways?"