A New Jersey man has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Tesla, alleging that the EV giant’s design defects led to a fatal crash on the Garden State Parkway that claimed the lives of his parents and teenage sister.
New York Daily News reports that Max Dryerman, a 19-year-old resident of New Jersey, is seeking damages from Tesla following a tragic accident on September 14, 2024, which resulted in the deaths of his 54-year-old parents and 17-year-old sister. The family was traveling in a 2024 Tesla Model S on the Garden State Parkway in Woodbridge when the vehicle veered off the road, striking a guardrail and a concrete bridge support.
According to the lawsuit filed last week in a Camden federal court, Dryerman claims that the Tesla’s “defective and unreasonably dangerous design” was responsible for the fatal crash. The car was equipped with advanced safety features, including forward collision warning, lane departure avoidance, and emergency lane departure, which the suit claims should have prevented the vehicle from leaving its lane and crashing.
The complaint also takes issue with a statement made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2016, in which he claimed that the company’s autopilot function was “probably better” than a human driver. Dryerman alleges that this statement misled his father, who was driving the car at the time of the accident.
Despite wearing seatbelts, all three family members in the vehicle — Dryerman’s parents in the front seats and his sister in the back — sustained fatal injuries in the crash. The lawsuit contends that the Tesla’s design failed to ensure proper lane-keeping and braking, ultimately leading to the tragic outcome.
Tesla has not yet responded to requests for comment from media outlets NJ.com and Reuters regarding the lawsuit.
Breitbart News has reported on other lawsuits over accidents that center on Musk’s claims that “Autopilot” and full self driving (FSD) are safe:
The lawsuit, filed by the victim’s family in 2021, stems from an incident on August 24, 2019, when Jovani Maldonado and his father were returning home from the teen’s soccer tournament. According to the lawsuit, their car was rear-ended by a Tesla Model 3 on Interstate 880, causing it to roll over and crash into the center divider. Tragically, Jovani, who was in the front passenger seat, was ejected from the vehicle and later succumbed to his injuries.
The driver of the Tesla, Romeo Lagman Yalung, had activated the vehicle’s autopilot feature, which he trusted based on Tesla’s claims that the software was “safer than a human driver.” The lawsuit alleges that in the moments leading up to the crash, the Tesla continued to travel at approximately 70 mph, even as it approached slower traffic.
Read more at New York Daily News here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
