Tesla was charged last year after a Maryland highway accident in which the airbags of a Model 3 refused to activate, leaving a lecturer at the college with brain injury.
Elon Musk, the co-founder of the company, has proclaimed Model 3 as the “safest car ever built” with the lowest risk of injury from any vehicle tested by regulators. The attorneys who brought the complaint claimed they felt it was the first lawsuit that questioned the health of the airbags of the electric car manufacturer.
Tesla “tested, manufactured, marketed, distributed, and/or sold the subject Model 3, placing the product into the stream of commerce in a defective and unreasonably dangerous condition,” attorneys for Kristian Edwards and her husband said in the 27-page complaint.
The case in online documents for California Supreme Court in Oakland could not be instantly confirmed.
Tesla hasn’t replied to many emails requesting clarification. Alleged flaws in Tesla’s Autopilot program have been blamed for accidents and injuries in multiple cases and federal safety officials have threatened the corporation with criticism of the systems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently reviewing premature failures of the wide center display and the device that control it in the sedans of Tesla’s Model S.
In July, another car hit the Edwards family’s Model 3, causing it to crash into a guardrail along the I-95 interstate highway, according to the complaint. None of the airbags in the vehicle had been deployed and Edwards, a professor of public safety at George Washington University in Washington who was wearing her seat belt, sustained significant head damage and other injuries. According to the complaint, her son was also injured in the leg.
According to the suit, the plaintiff is demanding redress for hospital costs, the diminished earning potential of Edwards and her distress and misery related to the crash. The lawsuit is Edwards v. Tesla Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Alameda (Oakland).
