- An official report cited alcohol, drug impairment, and unsafe speeds as crash contributors.
- The Cybertruck caught fire after impact, trapping passengers despite efforts to escape.
- The electric vehicle’s handle-less design may have worsened the rescue efforts during the fire.
Testimony from a witness to a fatal crash involving a Tesla Cybertruck in Piedmont, California, last November has raised concerns about both the vehicle’s safety features and the reckless behavior of those involved. According to US court documents, the driver and three passengers were under the influence at the time of the accident, while it was also revealed that the doors could not be opened.
Three of the four occupants of the Tesla were killed in the devastating crash. The family of Matthew Riordan owned the Cybertruck, and he told investigators that his friend, 19-year-old Soren Dixon, had begged him to take the truck out while at a party. Riordan ultimately relented, allowing Dixon to drive the Cybertruck, with friends Jack Nelson, Krysta Tsukahara, and Jordan Miller joining for the ride. Riordan followed behind in another car and witnessed the crash.
Read: Feds Looking Into Fatal Tesla Cybertruck Crash That Killed Three Teens
An autopsy later revealed that Dixon was twice the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash and also had cocaine and methamphetamine in his system. In interviews with investigators, Riordan stated that he frantically tried to save the others but was only able to pull Miller from the wreckage.
“I could hear Krysta yelling and the car saying ‘crash detected,” Riordan said. “I went back to the broken window and yelled for them to try to get out at this window … Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head (out) from the back, I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me, but she retreated because of the fire.” He also tried the doors, but they wouldn’t budge.
“Nothing budged at all,” he said. “I then tried the button on the windshield of Jordan’s door, then Krysta’s door,” but he couldn’t open the doors. Riordan was only able to pull Miller from the burning Tesla after desperately smashing a window with a tree branch.
It’s unclear why Riordan wasn’t able to open the doors of the Cybertruck, but it’s quite possible they had automatically locked when Dixon started driving and couldn’t be opened from the outside. An official report from the California Highway Patrol has blamed the crash on a combination of alcohol intoxication, drug impairment, and unsafe speeds.
However, it’s worth noting that Tesla models, including the Model Y and Model S, do have a feature that automatically unlocks the doors when the airbags have been fired. Many other cars also have this feature, but we haven’t been able to verify if the Cybertruck also has this function.
A key issue with the Cybertruck is that it doesn’t have any exterior door handles. Instead, you need to press a button on the pillar to unlatch the door, and finding those buttons in the midst of a blazing inferno could be very difficult.
