6
US opens second federal investigation of deadly Tesla crash into Texas home
Authorities investigating an accident that sent two people to the hospital after a Tesla crashed through the front of a Katy, Texas, home. Photograph: Terry Allbritton, Harris County Constable Precinct 5 View image in fullscreen Authorities investigating an accident that sent two people to the hospital after a Tesla crashed through the front of a Katy, Texas, home. Photograph: Terry Allbritton, Harris County Constable Precinct 5 US opens second federal investigation of deadly Tesla crash into Texas home Driver told authorities he had driver-assistance technology engaged before crash that killed 76-year-old Martha Avila The US government has opened a second federal investigation into a recent crash of a Tesla that reportedly had driver-assistance technology engaged, struck a Texas home and killed a resident. Meanwhile, the family of Martha Avila, the 76-year-old resident who was killed, has sued over the wreck . The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Wednesday that it was launching an investigation into the 19 June crash that killed Avila in the Houston suburb of Katy. That came two days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was investigating the crash as well. Furthermore, lawyers for Avila’s family said they had filed a civil complaint on Tuesday contending that Elon Musk’s electric vehicle manufacturer should be held liable for her wrongful death. The plaintiffs alleged gross negligence and failure to warn that the “autopilot” and “full self-driving” systems of the Tesla Model 3 at the center of the case were defective. Avila’s daughter, Jennifer Barbour, and her husband, Justin Barbour, maintained that the Model 3’s driver, Michael Butler, told law enforcement he engaged autopilot before plowing through the front wall of Avila’s home in Katy, fatally pinning her. She died later at a nearby hospital. Justin said he was also injured. The lawsuit filed in Texas’s state court system seeks more than $1m in damages, along with punitive damages reflecting Tesla’s alleged “reckless disregard for a substantial risk of severe bodily injury”. The Harris county sheriff’s department, which responded to the crash, said in a statement that the driver described using a driver-assistance system at the time of the wreck. Tesla and Musk, the world’s richest person, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. On Monday night, Musk had gone on X – the social media platform he owns – to defend Tesla. He wrote: “FSD drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash!” Tesla’s vice-president of artificial intelligence software, Ashok Elluswamy, posted separately on X that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area”. The NTSB’s announcement on Wednesday did not elaborate with respect to which areas the investigation may focus on. It only said it had opened an investigation into the crash t
