A closer look at Tesla Cybertruck’s design following death of 3 Piedmont students
“My first reaction was, like a lot of the crashes where I see occupants in a vehicle that catch fire in Teslas, I always wonder if those occupants were conscious and trying to escape the vehicle but were unable to,” said Michael Brooks, executive director for the Center for Auto Safety. “We have seen a number of crashes involving Tesla vehicles where occupants survive the trauma of the crash but were unable to escape the vehicles because of the electronic door latches that are no longer operational.”
By Lisa Fernandez
December 24, 2024
Nearly a month after three college students died in a fiery Cybertruck crash in Piedmont, community members are left not only grappling with grief, but also many unanswered questions about the country’s first multi-fatality accident involving Tesla’s modernistic, stainless steel electric pickup truck, released on the market last year.
College sophomores and 2023 Piedmont High graduates Soren Dixon, 19, Jack Nelson, 20, and Krysta Tsukahara, 19, died on Nov. 27 when the Cybertruck they were in veered off the road at 3 a.m. and struck a tree, becoming wedged next to a retaining wall, police said.
Their friend, Jordan Miller, 20, was able to get out, and he was hospitalized following the accident. His current condition has not been shared publicly.
Tesla’s Cybertruck is new. The first model was released in November 2023.
Since that release, there has been only one other Cybertruck death in the country: Michael Sheehan, 47, was driving a Cybertruck and hit a large concrete culvert about 1:45 a.m. on Aug. 5 in Baytown, 30 miles east of Houston, according to the Texas Department of Safety. Sheehan’s Cybertruck caught fire and burst into flames.
Like in the Piedmont case, the Cybertruck in Texas also burned so hot that it was difficult at first to determine who died and exactly what happened, officials said.
Click here to view the full story from Fox 2 KTVU.
