No fewer than four friends tragically burned to death in Toronto when they became trapped inside a Tesla Model Y after a high-speed crash reportedly disabled the vehicle’s electronic door handles.
The only survivor of the incident, which happened on October 24, 2024, a woman in her 20s, escaped with the help of Canada Post employee, Rick Harper, who heroically broke a window with a metal pole to pull her from the burning car.
The victims, Neelraj Gohil, 25; his sister Ketaba Gohil, 29; Jay Sisodiya; and Digvijay Patel, died when the car slammed into a guardrail along Lake Shore Boulevard East. Police have yet to determine the cause of the crash.
According to the Daily Mail, Harper told The Toronto Star that the survivor seemed desperate to escape but “couldn’t open the doors” from inside.
“I would assume the young lady would have tried to open the door from the inside because she was pretty desperate to get out,” Harper said.
He managed to break the window and help her escape, but due to the thick smoke, he did not initially realise there were others inside the vehicle.
Safety concerns have been raised over Tesla’s door design, as the Model Y does include a manual override feature, though it is not widely publicised.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has reportedly opened nine investigations into the Tesla Model Y, examining issues from “unexpected brake activation” to “sudden unintended acceleration.”
Tesla, which promotes its vehicles as having a “safety-first design,” highlights that its cars are among the safest in the world.
However, experts caution that in high-stress scenarios, such as a crash, victims may struggle to locate and use manual release mechanisms hidden within the vehicle.
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