“The Doors Wouldn’t Open”: Rescuer’s Heartbreaking Account of the Tesla Inferno That Claimed a Father and His Two Children.MD (84n)
A heroic shop-owner who desperately tried to free a man and two children from a burning Tesla after its retractable door handles failed to open has described how he tirelessly worked to put the fire out, but to no avail.
The tragic accident took place in Western Germany on Sunday after the vehicle drove off the road while attempting to overtake another car in the village of Villigst, according to police.
The Tesla crashed into a tree and burst into flames. Three people trapped inside were burned alive, while another child, aged nine, was able to escape and rushed to hospital.
Speaking to local media, eyewitness Roman Jedrzejewski said he desperately tried to open the door using the vehicle’s retractable handles but was unable to.
Mr Jedrzejewski, who runs a paint shop which is located directly opposite the site of the crash, was working when he suddenly heard ‘really loud braking noises’ and ‘really loud squealing tires’ before hearing an explosive bang.
The shop owner says he noticed smoke rising from the other side of the street and grabbed a fire extinguisher with no hesitation and ran towards the burning vehicle.
He tried to put the fire out, but he says the extinguisher ‘didn’t help’.
‘I wanted to save people’, he says, but he soon realised that he wouldn’t be able to get the victims out of the vehicle.
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A 43-year-old man and two children, both aged 9, burned alive in the tragic accident
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The tragic accident took place in Western Germany on Sunday after the vehicle drove off the road while attempting to overtake another car in the village of Villigst
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Emergency services are seen at the scene of the fatal crash
‘I tried to open the car, but that didn’t work…It was already so hot from the fire.’
‘The car was hanging halfway in a tree at head height, and the front was burning. But they just couldn’t get it open; I wanted to pull the children out’.
Despite his desperate attempts to free the victims, however, Mr Jedrzejewski is haunted by the fact he was not able to save them.
‘I was desperate, I couldn’t do anything’.
‘Damn it, I didn’t help. It didn’t work’, he said, blaming himself.
The victims were a 43-year-old man and two children, both aged nine.
Local police have said they are currently investigating the cause of the incident.
The retractable door handles on several Tesla models have previously been reported to have stopped working the moment power is cut off.
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Local police have said they are currently investigating the cause of the incident
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Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of Tesla. The company is working on a redesign of its door handles following reports of accidents involving passengers being trapped inside.
According to the German Automobile Association, manual opening of the cars is only possible from the inside, which complicates rescue attempts for emergency services.
The North Rhine-Westphalia Police Department’s specialised team will conduct a full analysis of the incident to determine the causes for the tragedy.
‘Our goal is to fully reconstruct the course of events and clearly determine the cause,’ the district police department stated.
The Tesla door handles have drawn attention in the past few days as Bloomberg uncovered several accidents involving passengers being trapped inside the electric vehicle, after an accident, with emergency services being unable to free them.
Max Walsh, an off-duty firefighter from Virginia, recalled an incident in which he had to smash the window to rescue the driver from a burning Tesla Model Y.
By the time Walsh and other emergency services managed to get to the driver’s wife, she suffered lasting lung damage from the smoke and severe burns to her face.
Walsh said that were he able to open the door, he’d be able to get ‘them both out before the fire department even got there.’
Following the report, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation over reports that electronic door handles can become inoperative, according to Reuters.
‘The risk of entrapment inside a vehicle is especially concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are locked inside a car exposed to high temperatures,’ the US agency said.
The investigation comes after nine Tesla owners reported being unable to open their Model Y doors from the outside, most of them after they had placed their children in the back seat.
In some cases, parents have admitted having to break windows to get their children out.
The administration noted that the door can be manually opened from the inside, but the instructions in the manual are complex and ‘may not be well known to owners,’ according to 20 Minuten.
Tesla’s design chief, Franz von Holzhausen, told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the company is looking to redesign door handles following the reports of incidents.
The Daily Mail has contacted Tesla for a comment.
