The family of a man who died in a crash involving a Tesla Cybertruck filed a lawsuit against the automaker, alleging a defective design and other claims.
The lawsuit, filed in Harris County district court in Texas, stated that in August 2024, 47-year-old Michael Sheehan’s Cybertruck veered off the road, hit a culvert and caught fire, trapping Sheehan inside a blaze that allegedly reached 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Sheehan’s family is also suing Barn Whiskey Bar, claiming that the establishment overserved Sheehan alcohol on the night of the crash. The family demands a trial by jury and seeks monetary relief that exceeds $1 million.
The lawsuit acknowledged that the incident was a single-vehicle crash. However, it argues that the crash forces were survivable and contends that the Cybertruck’s deformation contributed to the fire and prevented Sheehan from escaping the burning vehicle.
Defective design claims include the use of a highly volatile battery prone to thermal runaway despite the availability of an alternative battery cell chemistry that could have allowed more time to escape after the crash. The lawsuit also labeled the vehicle “not crashworthy” due to multiple factors, including the design of energy-absorbing structures near the battery modules.
The lawsuit also identified the Cybertruck’s doors as a design defect, arguing that occupants cannot open them once power is lost and that the vehicle’s alternate interior door handles are “unreasonably difficult to locate in an emergency.”
According to the lawsuit, Tesla failed to give “adequate warnings of the Cybertruck’s dangers” and “adequate instructions to avoid the product’s dangers,” and that the company’s negligence in the design, manufacturing, testing, inspection, marketing, instruction and selling of the vehicle contributed to Sheehan’s death.
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