According to Reuters, legal action has been filed charging Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of carelessness in the wake of a fiery crash that claimed the life of a 20-year-old man. Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, perished in a car accident on September 13th, 2021, at his house in Coral Gables, Florida, when the Model 3’s underbody collided with the road’s surface as it travelled through an intersection. The car immediately lost control, veered off the road, and hit two trees before bursting into flames.
According to Reuters, legal action has been filed charging Tesla and a service manager at one of its stores of carelessness in the wake of a fiery crash that claimed the life of a 20-year-old man.
Nicholas Garcia and a passenger, Jazmin Alcala, perished in a car accident on September 13th, 2021, at his house in Coral Gables, Florida, when the Model 3’s underbody collided with the road’s surface as it travelled through an intersection. The car immediately lost control, veered off the road, and hit two trees before bursting into flames.
According to a preliminary assessment by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), records from the automobile’s event data recorder (EDR) show the car was travelling at speeds of up to 90 mph in the five seconds leading up to the incident, and the driver never applied the brakes.
A media report from WPLG Local 10 includes video of the crash captured by the dash-mounted camera of another vehicle. The car is seen driving past the intersection, sparks flying as its body collides with the road surface before colliding. A police report on the incident was also released by WPLG, which stated that the vehicle hit a hump in the road while passing through the intersection and that the driver accelerated to beat a changing signal.
According to Reuters, Tesla recalled 2,791 vehicles in October due to a front suspension lateral link that may not have been adequately secured during production. This recall affected some Model Ys, and Model 3s constructed between January 2019 and April 2021, in contrast to other recent Tesla recalls that addressed software issues and were commonly fixed by an over-the-air upgrade.
The lawsuit makes no mention of whether Garcia’s Tesla was among those recalled nor of the recall itself. According to an upgraded report filed on December 15th, Tesla received 133 warranty claims and 104 field reports that could be related between October 14, 2018, and September 15, 2021, but no injuries, deaths, or accidents.
