An investigation of Bloomberg revealed that retractable vehicle door handles Tesla were allegedly responsible for the deaths of 15 people after accidents considered non-fatal.
In his report, Bloomberg claims to have analyzed data from fire accidents in the United States since 2012 to estimate how many deaths were linked to doors that did not open.
Data from 2012 to 2023 was provided to the news outlet by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), while Bloomberg carried out an independent analysis of data from 2024 and 2025.
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According to Bloombergthe process involved reviewing thousands of pages of police, fire and autopsy reports. Where possible, the media also analyzed photographs, audio recordings of emergency calls and images from police body cameras.
well that Tesla is not the only manufacturer to have adopted retractable door handles, it is the brand which records by far the greatest number of complaints of this type from its customers.
The investigation of Bloomberg identified a dozen incidents in which occupants or rescuers failed to open model doors Tesla having suffered an accident and caught fire.
Even if Bloomberg points out that these 15 deaths represent only a small part of the hundreds of fatal accidents involving electric vehicles over the last decade, the list of deaths linked to electric handles continues to grow.
According to the analysis of Bloombergmore than half of the deaths have occurred since November 2024, indicating a worsening trend.
The outlet also emphasized that there are no comprehensive, publicly available statistics from state or federal agencies to track the number of people trapped by car doors that don’t open. This is because it is difficult to determine precisely what happens in the moments immediately following an accident.
Following fatal accidents involving vehicle doors TeslaNHTSA launched an investigation into vehicle retractable door handles on September 15 of this year. Model Y.
Electric car handles Tesla are powered by a 12 volt battery. However, during an impact where the battery discharges or is disabled, the system becomes virtually unusable.
Although the vehicles are equipped with manual unlocking mechanisms for the front doors, these do not have obvious markings and can only be located by consulting the owner’s manual.
It should be noted that, according to BloombergModels 3 and Y do not have the same unlocking mechanism for the rear doors. On some Tesla Equipped with rear emergency manual devices, the release levers may be located under floor mats, behind speaker grilles or under plastic parts, making them difficult to spot, particularly in an emergency situation.
To answer this problem, Tesla published an article on its website indicating that vehicles will receive a system allowing automatic door opening after an accident. However, the company has not specified which models will benefit from this security update.
Photo: Unsplash. This content was created with the help of AI and proofread by the editorial team.
