We’ve talked a lot about issues with Tesla’s door handles and some of the tragic deaths that have occurred because they became inoperable following a crash, but it’s been hard to quantify just how many deaths these handles could actually be responsible for. However, a new report from Bloomberg looks to quantify that number, and it’s shocking. The outlet found at least 15 deaths in a dozen separate incidents over the past 10 years in which people inside a Tesla or rescuers on the outside were unable to open its doors after it had crashed and caught fire.
It isn’t like these numbers are slowing down, either. More than half of the deaths that Bloomberg discovered occurred since November of 2024. Now, regulators are getting involved. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a defect investigation into whether door issues prevented people from getting out of Model Ys, asking Tesla to provide a detailed list of consumer complaints and reports involving crashes, injuries, fatalities or fires. Authorities in China and Europe are considering their own rule changes. Tesla popularize flush-mounted electric door handles, and now there are currently 70 models on sale in the U.S. with them.
Change is on the way… maybe
Tesla didn’t respond for comment to this particular story, but has said in the past that it takes safety incidents seriously, according to Bloomberg. It also employed the classic “it’s not just my fault” defense technique by pointing out that other automakers have similar issues.
Still, Tesla says it’s considering changes to its door handle designs. Here’s what it told Bloomberg:
[Tesla may engineer] a way to disable the locks automatically when battery voltage runs low, and to release the doors in the moments leading up to the battery dying. Tesla’s design chief told Bloomberg in September that the company was working on a redesign of its door handles to combine the electric and manual door-release mechanisms.
Last week, Tesla announced a new safety page on its website. Among other features and capabilities, the company said the doors of its vehicles will automatically unlock for emergency access when a serious collision is detected. It wasn’t immediately clear when this functionality was made available and for which models. In a footnote, the company says certain features may not be available in all regions or for all vehicles, or depending on build date.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
The process
Bloomberg clearly took its time in compiling the data, admitting that there are no comprehensive, publicly available statistics from any state or federal agency on how many people have been trapped by malfunctioning doors that have subsequently died. It described the data gathering process as “complicated” because it can be hard to know “with certainty what happened in the frantic moments between when a vehicle crashed and when it was engulfed in flames.” I can imagine.
The outlet looked at every fatal EV crash in the U.S. where fire was involved in some way. From there, its reporting focused on cases where there was documented evidence that victims survived the initial impact of the crash, but they were trapped inside the burning vehicle because of malfunctioning electric door handles.
NHTSA gave Bloomberg a list of all EV crashes where fire was involved between 2012 and 2023 (the last year that data was available). The outlet then independently identified additional relevant crashes from 2024 and 2025. It crosschecked these crashes with local news reports, law enforcement statements and court filings. It also got photos, audio of 911 calls and policebody camera footage when possible. Basically, Bloomberg did its goddamn homework on this one. What it found was troubling and a possible warning of what’s to come if Tesla doesn’t do something to fix this glaring issue.
If you want to learn even more about this situation and the outlet’s findings, head over to Bloomberg.com.
