cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31612631

Exclusive: “There’s my challenge to Elon,” attorney S. Scott West told The Independent. “Make these vehicles so safe that I don’t have to do this anymore.”

A Tesla Cybertruck owner in Texas was unable to escape after rolling it into a ditch last year, experiencing an unthinkable demise as the batteries powering the $100,000 stainless steel SUV burst into flames with such intensity the helpless driver's skeletal system literally disintegrated, his family says.

Michael Sheehan, 47, "burned to death at 5,000°F – a fire so hot his bones experienced thermal fracture," according to a gut-wrenching lawsuit his widow and parents have now filed against the electric auto manufacturer headed up by billionaire Elon Musk.

"He was eight inches shorter in length than he was before he burned," attorney S. Scott West told The Independent. "That's thermal fracture."

all 6 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

People are stupid and get confused when in a panic. So we put pushbars on Emergency exits. Multiple redundent signs to say how to get out. Why are our cars any different.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago

    I wasn't able to remove the speaker cover hiding the manual release cable on those stupid wing doors the model x has. I was not panicking while trying to escape a battery fire. Handleless doors should be illegal.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 20 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Push bars on a moving vehicle is a lawsuit all on its own, so I dont think we need to go that far. But electronic only doors is definitely stupid.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Of course. My point was more a door handle that is easy to use is still not a simple to find in a fire or smokey environment. This is for a stationary building so a car should have more features to exit in an emergency.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    rotisserie roasted Cyberfrucked

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Integrated cremation

  • source
  • 61 comments in c/news@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 106 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Sheehan was driving home when the Cybertruck “left the road” and struck a large concrete culvert, after which the vehicle’s “hyper volatile” battery system went into “thermal runaway” – a chain reaction of short-circuits ultimately resulting in uncontrollable temperature escalation – and caught fire.

    Once power was lost, it was impossible for Sheehan to open the Cybertruck’s electrically operated doors in the normal way, the complaint goes on, highlighting a major issue that has similarly doomed others riding in Teslas. The external door handles also failed to work, and the emergency manual door release handles within the Cybertruck are “unreasonably difficult to locate in an emergency,” the complaint states.

    These design problems are so glaringly obvious that the fact Tesla hasn't bothered to fix them gives big "fuck you" vibes. A company's culture comes from the top.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 85 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    How appropriate that a Swastitruck cremates its drivers.

  • source
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I'm sitting here wondering if the still, legally, need to go through a funeral home, or if the medical examiner just hands them a box and says "you guys are good".

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    We anything be recoverable? I can't imagine there was much of anything left.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    There will be some extremely brittle but recognizable bone fragments. Crematories put the ashes through a pulverizer that turns them into a fine white powder. I can't imagine there's a lot though. And it would be a nightmare to... Scoop up?

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 101 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Elon: If the bones disintegrated, how do you know anyone was even in there? 😏

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 108 points 1 year ago (9 children)
  • [+] -26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

    27 people dying in explosions from a single car model is a really high number. This compares DEATHS from the Ford Pinto to FIRES for all models made by Tesla.

    Edit: i don't think I was paying attention when reading this

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 37 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Assuming that 83 fatalities is up to date for Tesla vehicle fires, is 16 deaths distributed per model a good stat to you?

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    This stat seems to be just fire related deaths while the graph is all deaths.

    We probably need to compare deaths or number of fire or deaths due to fire divided by number of miles driven per model. Or something like that.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yes, and how many models does Tesla have? 3? 4? Even divided by 4, 232 still is way WAY more than pinto and this is basically for ALL the Tesla models anyways

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    You're comparing total fires with fires which resulted in deaths like I was. It says 83 Tesla deaths from fires/explosions. Also, like someone else said, It would be important to see how many cars were sold for each model. For example if Tesla sold 2 million model 3s and Ford sold 300,000 Pintos then you'd get an idea of the danger inherent with owning that model.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    The perfect fake death.

    Take out huge loan. Take out massive life insurance policy. Flip Tesla. Ignite.

    Idk, head to somewhere with no extradition by cargo boat or some shit.

    Edit: okay there's a flaw. You gotta drive a cyber truck.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    okay but that's pretty fucking metal

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [+] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 48 points 1 year ago

    Load up batteries into a Swastikar with a massive number of recalls that was manufactured by a company run by an ultimate idiot who lives by "move fast and break things" ...

    What did you think you bought? Something good? 🤡 🫏 🖕 💩

  • source
  • [–] 13 points 1 year ago

    That's 2,760 C. holy shit. poor guy. I'm so glad these hunks of rubbish are banned here in the UK

  • source
  • [+] 24 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 34 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You signed your death warrant when you bought an Incel Camino

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    It's all computers!

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    a 100k charcuterie machine, a mobile crematorium, or a venison slicer. a swiss army knife of cars.

  • source
  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Technician A: "Here's where the infant went through the windshield. Three points."

    Technician B: "The teenager's braces around the backseat ashtray would make a good "anti-smoking" ad.

    Technician A: "The father must've been huge. See how the fat burnt into the driver's seat with his polyester shirt? Very "modern art."

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    5 out of 10: Shit car; great Viking funeral.

  • source
  • [+] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    I'd rather not fuck him, thanks. There are enough wives/baby mamas who have done that at this point.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    So they're providing free cremation services now eh?

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    I don’t know how so maybe this isn’t entirely true, but I’ve seen past news reports of Cybertrucks having to be buried due to the temperature of these fires. Supposedly they burn so hot that they are difficult to extinguish.

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • [+] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Another reason to ditch teslas

  • source
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Yeah, but in his defense I don't think there's anything in the safety regulations about post mortem remains being identifiable. LOL.

  • source
  • 10 comments in c/teslamotors@lemmy.zip view that post
    [–] 59 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Cybertrucks are capable of falling apart, underperforming, looking stupid, and incinerating their occupants.

    You can also broadcast that you're a Nazi by driving one.

    Inexplicably, sales are down.

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    It's funny, I drove past a dealership (not Tesla) earlier and they had one of those Swasticar Dumpsters. They didn't have it in the normal line however, it was on one of those lifts that rotate to show the whole car about 30ft in the air. It took me until now to realize they're not showing it off, they're keeping it high up away from the better vehicles so it doesn't immediately burn them down too.

    Also it has like 1,500 miles and is marked down to $77k lmao imagine losing all that money on a dumpster.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You've heard of rolling coal, get ready for rolling crematorium

  • source
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)

    "Burning bones entirely requires extremely high temperatures. An environment of 1292 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius) is necessary to incinerate bones completely."

    source

  • source
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago*

    The lawsuit is about being trapped in the vehicle, not about the batteries catching fire. You can burn to death in a gas-powered car as well, but chances are you’d be able to open the door handles in any other vehicle after a crash. That’s the safety problem they are suing over.

  • source
  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    Damn, good way to unalive someone and leave no evidence but a faulty truck.

  • source