Four people lost their lives in Toronto when the Tesla they were riding in crashed into a pillar and burst into flames. A fifth passenger, a woman in her twenties, narrowly escaped thanks to a bystander who broke a window to pull her out of the burning car.
According to the bystander, Rick Harper, the Tesla Model Y’s electronic doors may have been the reason the other passengers couldn’t escape. “You couldn’t open the doors,” Harper told the Toronto Star, adding that the young woman likely tried to get out on her own. Due to thick smoke, he was unaware others were still inside.
Police report that the crash happened on October 24 when the driver lost control, hit a guardrail, and then crashed into a pillar, causing the car to catch fire. Authorities are investigating, but there is concern that Tesla’s electronic doors, which rely on power, may have contributed to the tragedy.
Tesla has faced similar issues in the past, with some users trapped inside due to power-dependent doors. While Tesla vehicles typically have manual release levers, these have been criticized for being hard to locate and use, especially in emergencies. In the Model Y, rear door releases aren’t always included.
This isn’t the first case of a fatal incident. In 2019, a man died in his Tesla Model S after bystanders couldn’t open the car’s auto-retracting handles to free him. In 2021, another driver faced a similar issue but managed to escape when his Model S caught fire.
Given the severity of EV battery fires, which are notoriously hard to extinguish, having a reliable way to exit these vehicles in an emergency is essential.
