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A Tesla Model Y crash that killed 72-year-old Clyde Leach sent his family to court by arguing the 2021 Tesla Model Y experienced sudden unintended acceleration which caused the fatal crash on April 17, 2021.
Tesla denies all wrongdoing but settled the case before a scheduled July 2025 jury trial.
According to the lawsuit, Clyde Leach was wearing a seat belt while driving his 2021 Tesla Model Y at about 11 p.m. southbound on Allen Road through its intersection with State Route 435 in Jeffersonville, Ohio.
The lawsuit alleges the Model Y “suddenly accelerated forward without any intentional driver direction or command by decedent Clyde Leach.” The driver failed to make a curve and the Tesla left the road, accelerating straight toward a gas station. The Tesla traveled over a curb and through road signs before crashing into a support column adjacent to the gas pumps and a parked vehicle.
The Tesla crash lawsuit does not mention how fast the Model Y was traveling other than alleging, “the crash occurred at moderate speed, and under ordinary and foreseeable conditions, on impact the support column tore through beams and cross members that spanned the area between the Tesla’s crash rails, causing significant intrusion into the passenger compartment and battery modules.”
The battery modules caught fire which set the Model Y on fire. The lawsuit says Clyde Leach “suffered multiple fatal injuries in the collision, including blunt force injuries, fractures, spinal cord injuries, internal injuries, and burn injuries.”
According to the plaintiffs, Tesla knew about sudden unintended acceleration complaints before April 2021, including about Model Y vehicles.
“Tesla’s failure to produce the subject Model Y with the ability to absorb reasonable collision forces and with adequate occupant protection systems is inexplicable, negligent, reckless, and rendered the vehicle unreasonably dangerous and defective. Moreover, Tesla failed to provide adequate warnings or instructions advising decedent Clyde Leach of the dangers, but instead misrepresented the vehicle as safe in these regards.” — Clyde Leach Tesla lawsuit
The lawsuit alleges the Tesla Model Y “did not engage its automatic emergency braking, apply braking, reduce acceleration, or otherwise mitigate or prevent a collision with the fixed obstacles ahead.”
Tesla argues there was nothing defective about the Model Y and the crash was caused by the driver operating the vehicle in an unsafe way.
In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said about 16,000 vehicle crashes occur each year because a driver applies the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal.
And in January 2021, NHTSA announced 232 complaints had been submitted to the government about unintended acceleration in Tesla vehicles, with 203 complaints indicating sudden acceleration caused crashes.
NHTSA said it reviewed all the acceleration complaints and crash allegations and analyzed videos and event data recorders collected from Tesla Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles.
“There is no evidence of any fault in the accelerator pedal assemblies, motor control systems, or brake systems that has contributed to any of the cited incidents. There is no evidence of a design factor contributing to increased likelihood of pedal misapplication. The theory provided of a potential electronic cause of SUA [sudden unintended acceleration] in the subject vehicles is based upon inaccurate assumptions about system design and log data.” — NHTSA
The Clyde Leach Tesla crash lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California: Donna Leach, et al., v. Tesla, Inc., et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by Bailey Glasser, LLP.