A grieving widow has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Tesla, accusing the automaker of negligence and breach of implied warranty following a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model 3 that claimed the life of her husband.
TechCrunch reports that a woman named Jiyoung Yoon has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s Tesla after her husband, Jyung Woo Hahn, tragically lost his life in a devastating crash. The incident occurred on March 12, 2022, when Hahn was driving his 2020 Tesla Model 3 on the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Rockland County, New York. According to the lawsuit, the vehicle malfunctioned and collided with a tree, immediately bursting into flames.
Pennsylvania Tesla fire (Columbia Volunteer Fire Company of Osceola Mills)
Yoon alleges in the lawsuit that her husband survived the initial impact but was unable to escape the fast-burning vehicle. Firefighters who arrived at the scene reported that the fire was “extremely difficult” to put out, requiring more than 1,000 gallons of water.
The lawsuit points to the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery as a significant factor in the tragedy. When a lithium-ion battery is ruptured, a process called thermal runaway occurs, leading to a sharp increase in battery cell temperature and pressure. This results in the release of flammable gas, which can ignite due to the battery’s high temperature, causing a quick fire that is hard to extinguish and emits toxic fumes.
TV star and car enthusiast Jeremy Clarkson recently pointed to thermal runaway as one of the primary safety concerns about electric vehicles:
Clarkson also pointed out the difficulty in extinguishing fires in electric vehicles, citing an incident where an electric car burned for days due to a phenomenon known as “thermal runaway” in the battery pack.
“The electrical car that Richard Hammond rolled down a hill while filming for the Grand Tour burned for days. And then, after the fire had died down, something in the battery pack called ‘thermal runaway’ caused it to rear back up again. And this went on for weeks,” Clarkson explained.
Yoon accuses Tesla of multiple counts of negligence, including producing a vehicle that is “defective and unreasonably dangerous.” She also alleges that Tesla is guilty of breach of implied warranty of merchantability. The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial and is seeking various forms of damages, including actual damages, lost wages, emotional distress, and more.
This case adds to a growing list of concerns about the safety of electric vehicles, particularly those manufactured by Tesla. There have been several incidents in recent years where Tesla vehicles have caught fire following crashes, raising questions about the flammable nature of lithium-ion batteries.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan