Police in Germany confirmed that a 43 year old man and two nine year olds died after their Tesla caught fire and rescuers could not open the electronic doors. Another nine year old was able to escape and was airlifted to a hospital.
The crash happened on Sunday September 7 in Sehnde, a town not far from Hanover. Reports said the Tesla went off the road, hit a tree, and burst into flames. Police said rescuers on the scene tried but could not open the doors in time to save them.
The names of the victims have not been made public. A man named Roman Jedrzejewski who works in a paint shop nearby explained what he saw and how he tried to help. He said: “Suddenly, I heard really loud braking noises, really loud squealing tires. And then a bang, it was brutal. I just thought: My God.”
He grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran to the car but it was no use. He said: “I wanted to save people. I tried to open the car, but that didn’t work either. It was already so hot from the fire, but the right side of the car was still relatively undamaged. Da*n it, I didn’t help. It didn’t work.”
Tesla cars use flush door handles and electronic releases that can be hard to open from the outside if the car loses power in a crash. They do have manual levers inside but they can be difficult to find or use, especially for kids. This has raised concerns before. Earlier this year a German automobile club warned about the risks, and in the US regulators opened an investigation into over 170,000 Model Y vehicles after reports of doors not opening in emergencies.
