The owner of a Tesla Cybertruck was burned alive after the pickup exploded in a 2,760°C fire, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Texas.
The flames were so intense that the fire caused the bones of Michael Sheehan, 47, to disintegrate. According to reports, his skeleton was 20 cm shorter when he was found.
The accident happened on August 3, 2024, after he crashed the car into a culvert near Beach City, about 48 kilometers east of Houston.
Sheehan had purchased the futuristic Tesla truck only three months earlier, on April 25. After the crash, the truck was engulfed in flames almost immediately.
Unfortunately, he was trapped inside the car due to the “vehicle’s design flaws,” according to the lawsuit filed against Tesla by Sheehan’s widow, Shannon, and his parents.
“It was a single-vehicle accident. The forces of the impact were survivable… except for the fire, the ergonomic deficiencies, and the low crash resistance,” the lawsuit states.
Speaking to The Independent, attorney S. Scott West said the car is a “double-edged sword.” According to him, Tesla prioritized aesthetics over basic safety, making it nearly impossible for Sheehan to escape the fire after the car lost power.
The lawsuit claims that the Cybertruck’s electric doors cannot be opened after a power cut. The external handles fail, and the internal manual release latches are “extremely difficult to locate in an emergency.”
The suit also states that Tesla provided owners with “insufficient warnings or training” on how to exit the vehicle after a crash.
West said Michael was “very smart,” but when Tesla delivered his Cybertruck, “the instructions they gave him were woefully inadequate to handle a situation like this.”
The lawyer acknowledged that Sheehan had alcohol in his system at the time of the accident, a fact noted in the complaint. But he argued that “this should not have been used to sign his death sentence.”
Sheehan was the first person to die in a crash involving the Cybertruck since Tesla launched the model in November 2023, according to The Independent.
However, just a few months later, three college students in California burned to death in another Cybertruck accident.
Photo and video: Unsplash / Peevey Funeral & Cremation. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
