By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) -Tesla has been sued over a fiery Wisconsin crash that killed all five occupants of a Model S, who were allegedly trapped inside because of a design flaw that prevented them from opening the sedan’s doors.
Jeffrey Bauer, 54, and Michelle Bauer, 55, of Crandon, Wisconsin were passengers when their Model S went off the road and struck a tree in Verona, Wisconsin, a suburb of Madison, on November 1, 2024. They died the next day.
According to a complaint filed on Friday by four of the Bauers’ children, the couple’s fate was sealed because the Model S’s lithium-ion battery pack caused the electronic door systems to fail.
The children said Tesla knew this could happen based on earlier fires, yet made a “conscious departure from known, feasible safety practices.”
Tesla, based in Austin, Texas and led by Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
The automaker has also been sued by families of two college students killed in a Cybertruck crash last November in a San Francisco suburb, after allegedly being locked in the burning vehicle because of its door handle design.
NHTSA HAS PROBED TESLA DOOR DESIGN
In September, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration disclosed a probe into possible defects on some Tesla doors, following reports that handles could fail.
The Bauer children said Model S rear seat passengers like Michelle Bauer were particularly vulnerable following crashes, because they would have to lift carpeting to find a metal tab allowing their escape, which is not intuitive.
A nearby homeowner told 911 she heard screaming from within the Bauers’ vehicle, the complaint said.
“Tesla’s design choices created a highly foreseeable risk: that occupants who survived a crash would remain trapped inside a burning vehicle,” according to the complaint.
Other defendants include the estate of the car’s driver, who the Bauer children accused of negligent driving. The lawsuit was filed in a state court in Dane County.
The case is Bauer et al v Tesla et al, Wisconsin Circuit Court, Dane County, No. 2025CV003601.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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