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A Tesla Cybertruck death in Texas has caused a lawsuit filed by the family of 47-year-old Cybertruck driver Michael Sheehan.
According to the Texas lawsuit, Michael Sheehan purchased a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck in April 2024 and received instructions about the truck from the Tesla Service Houston-Cypress facility.
But 102 days later on August 5, Sheehan was driving the Cybertruck when it left the road, struck a culvert and caught fire. The lawsuit says he was trapped inside the Cybertruck and burned to death.
The lawsuit doesn’t say where the crash occurred, but a local investigator said the Cybertruck driver was traveling southwest on Nita Way. The investigator said the Cybertruck traveled off the road and entered a ditch, “striking a large concrete culvert.”
The lawsuit also doesn’t mention how fast Sheehan was driving or if he was wearing a seat belt, but his family members who sued contend the crash was survivable except for the fire and defects in the Cybertruck.
The plaintiffs claim the Tesla Cybertruck was defective and “unreasonably dangerous,” and Tesla could have used safer alternative designs for the 2024 Cybertruck.
The Tesla Cybertruck lawsuit alleges the truck was defectively designed in at least one or more of the following ways.
According to the plaintiffs, the Tesla Cybertruck “battery cell chemistry used is hyper volatile and susceptible to thermal runaway,” and Tesla could have used alternative “battery cell chemistry with slower thermal propagation readily available, which allows longer time to escape post-crash.”
The Cybertruck also was allegedly built with the wrong materials and had structural design defects. Other alleged defects include the battery modules, cells, packs, and the location of the vents in the battery modules and packs.
The Cybertruck was also allegedly defective because of the exterior door handles that don’t open properly, and because the “alternate interior door handles are unreasonably difficult to locate in an emergency.”
Other alleged Cybertruck defects include the battery fuel system and the door design, and the “lack of adequate warnings or instructions regarding exit procedures.” Tesla also allegedly failed to provide proper “training at the time of delivery” of the Cybertruck.
The Barn Whiskey Bar
The lawsuit also accuses an establishment called the Barn Whiskey Bar (3180 BAR, LLC) of “negligent, careless, and reckless disregard of its duty” because it served Michael Sheehan an “excessive amount of alcohol” and served him even though he was “clearly intoxicated.”
According to the lawsuit, the bar had a duty to refrain from serving alcohol to “obviously intoxicated patrons.”
The lawsuit says the bar should have provided a “sober driver” for Sheehan and should have monitored his alcohol consumption. The lawsuit even alleges the Barn Whiskey Bar “failed to provide non-alcoholic drinks,” and Mr. Sheehan’s “intoxication was a proximate cause of the damages suffered.”
And the lawsuit alleges the Barn Whiskey Bar should have stopped serving the Tesla driver alcohol when “it was apparent to the provider that MICHAEL SHEEHAN was obviously intoxicated to the extent that he presented a clear danger to himself and others.”
The plaintiffs are seeking “monetary relief over $1,000,000.00.”
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration awarded the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck a five-star overall safety rating, the highest possible safety rating.
The Tesla Cybertruck death lawsuit was filed in the District of Harris County, Texas (Judicial District): Shannon Sheehan, et al., v. Tesla, Inc., et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by the West Law Firm, and Liles White PLLC.