A father and two 9-year-old children died in a Tesla fire after a crash on September 19 in western Germany. Rescuers tried desperately to pull them out but couldn’t open the car’s electronic doors. The deaths have put Tesla’s electronic doors under scrutiny as regulators and families ask whether the design failure puts lives at risk when every second matters.
The Tesla left the road while trying to pass another vehicle and hit a tree, according to North Rhine-Westphalia’s police department. Flames spread through the car. A third child escaped, and medics flew him to the hospital, but the 43-year-old man and two young children could not get out.
People Nearby Ran to Help
Roman Jedrzejewski, a local business owner, grabbed a fire extinguisher and rushed toward the burning car. “I wanted to rescue some people,” Jedrzejewski told Ruhr News. “I tried to open the car, but that didn’t work either. It was already so hot from the fire, but the right side of the car was still relatively undamaged. I didn’t help. It didn’t work.”
The rescuers faced something they wouldn’t find in most cars. Tesla doors don’t have regular handles. Drivers and passengers press a button to open the door. When the car loses power, those buttons stop working. Firefighters arrived but fought to put out the blaze because of repeated flare-ups, a common problem with electric vehicle battery fires.
Police spokesman Bernd Pentrop confirmed what witnesses already knew about the Tesla fire fatality. “Tragically, [the Tesla] caught fire there, and three people inside the vehicle were burned to death,” Pentrop said, according to local reports. “Among them were two children and an adult man.”
The Manual Override Feature
Tesla cars do have a manual override feature, but finding it during a fire takes knowledge most people don’t have. The override sits in a spot that isn’t obvious.
Germany’s automobile association, known as ADAC, warned in April 2024 that retractable door handles could create safety risks. Tesla’s doors have trapped people in other fires. Last year, four friends died in a burning Tesla after a crash in Toronto damaged the electronic doors, according to a lawsuit filed by relatives of one victim.
In April 2025, college basketball recruit Alijah Arenas crashed his Tesla Cybertruck into a tree and found himself fighting to escape as the vehicle caught fire, he told reporters. The University of Southern California player survived by pouring water from a bottle on himself as smoke filled the cabin. Doctors put him in a temporary coma while he recovered.
The Toronto victim’s family is suing Tesla in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit accuses the company of negligence and fraud. The family claims Tesla knew about the door design flaw but didn’t fix it despite 200 fires involving its cars, according to court documents. The case is still working through the courts.
Parents Break Windows to Free Their Children
The door problems go beyond fires. US regulators opened an investigation last week into Tesla’s door handles after getting nine reports that electronic door handles on 2021 Model Y vehicles suddenly stopped working, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Four parents had to break their car windows to free their children from the back seat. NHTSA said the problems seemed to happen when the electronic locks got too little voltage. None of the car owners got a low battery warning before the doors failed.
The investigation covers about 170,000 Model Y vehicles. NHTSA noted that while manual releases exist inside the cars, children might not reach them or know how they work. “Entrapment in a vehicle is particularly concerning in emergency situations, such as when children are entrapped in a hot vehicle,” the agency said in its initial review.
Tesla declined to comment on the investigation or the Germany crash.
Read More: Tesla Faces Allegations of Tampering with Customer Odometers to Dodge Warranty Claims
Sales Drop and More Investigations
Tesla is dealing with falling sales as deliveries are set to drop for the second year in a row, according to Reuters. Customer backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s political activities has hurt sales in recent months. The company faces several other NHTSA investigations, including reviews of its driver assistance systems and a “summon” feature that has caused parking lot crashes.
Musk has moved his attention toward robotaxis and humanoid robots, but Tesla still relies on its car business for revenue. The CEO recently promised to put hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars and robotaxis on roads by the end of next year. The company now faces mounting safety questions and regulatory scrutiny that could slow those plans.
The Design Question
The German crash investigation continues. Police are looking at why the Tesla left the road. But the door question sits at the center of everything. When a Tesla catches fire, every second matters in preventing a fatality. Regular door handles work whether the car has power or not. Tesla’s electronic buttons only work when the battery does.
Three people died in western Germany because people who wanted to help couldn’t reach them. The deaths have added weight to long-standing concerns about whether Tesla’s door design creates unnecessary danger in crashes and fires.
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