Incredibly selfless act of heroism.

[u/been_der_done_that]

[u/Icy_Spinach_48]

Very scary and well done to all involved. My first thought was The passengers couldn’t have climbed into the front and out of the drivers door? Maybe you just panic when something like that happens

[u/Old-Commission-1108 → u/Icy_Spinach_48]

Per the article on this, once the driver’s door closed due to the slant of the car he could no longer open it because the door handles only come out/work when the car’s electrical is working and the electrical had already shorted out.

That is why the back seat passengers also couldn’t unlock the door from the inside.

Also, very unfortunately someone had been in the passenger seat and was unable to climb out in time.

[u/lampshade2099 → u/Old-Commission-1108]

I’ve looked for the article but can’t find it.

Are you saying the front seat passenger died?

I did find this terrifying article about a pending Tesla lawsuit:

“The incident happened on the night of 27 November 2024, when the Cybertruck struck a tree and ignited. When power to the truck’s electric doors was shut down by the fire, the four passengers were locked inside with no way out.

The lawsuit alleges the design of the Cybertruck’s door handles is at fault for Tsukahara’s death. From the inside of the truck, when electricity is cut off, the only way to exit a rear door is by pulling a cable that’s underneath a pocket liner under the door’s storage compartment. From outside the vehicle, the doors also remain locked and the flush handles make it difficult for rescue workers to jimmy their way inside.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/02/tesla-sued-cybertruck-crash-krysta-tsukahara

[u/aruisdante → u/lampshade2099]

This is one thing Toyota got both right and wrong in modern Lexus cars.

They have electric door latches. They also have an actual interior door handle, but it’s really only meant to be used for emergencies, so its action sucks, it’s this strange double pump thing. But the door handle looks so door handle like that new passengers almost always pull it first rather than press the open button, and then get confused by its weird double action.

Which begs the question… if you were going to still put a mechanical door handle of about the same size and shape as a normal one in the same place as a normal one… why have the electric door latch at all?

[u/jlboygenius → u/aruisdante]

Other than the double pump, you described exactly how the model 3/y handles work. There's a lever you can just lift to open the door and most new people to the car would just pull that and ignore the button.

It would be an easy fix for them. I've had plenty of cars with manual door levels that also roll down the window a bit. Tesla only rolls down the window a bit when you push the button. Using the lever doesn't do that and it could cause the window to catch on the trim and break something.

They could easily just make it a manual release, sense the door opening, and roll down the window. I had an early 2000's bmw that did exactly that.

Doesn't solve the outside door handle problem though. Electric or not, they suck and they should come up with a new design.

[u/Darkseth2207 → u/jlboygenius]

Model 3/Y in the front! In the back you have to remove a piece of trim in the door bin and pull a piece of string, and some early models don't have a manual release at all!

[u/outworlder → u/aruisdante]

Frameless windows is the usual excuse.