Doctor burned to death in his crashed Tesla because car’s electronic door

A doctor burned to death in his crashed Tesla because the vehicle’s electronic door handles didn’t pop out, meaning rescuers couldn’t save him from the flames, a lawsuit claims.

Dr. Omar Awan, 48, died in February 2019 after crashing his Model S on South Flamingo Road in Broward County, Florida. 

He survived the initial impact. And his family have now sued Elon Musk‘s car company claiming the father-of-five’s death burning and smoke inhalation death could have been avoided were it not for the Tesla’s door handles. 

The car firm’s vehicles have special door handles which sit flush to the car’s body. They retract into the vehicle while it is moving, but can pop out when it stops to let people get inside. 

After the crash, the initial rescuers on the scene were confused by the car’s door handles, which hadn’t popped out, and were unable to gain entry, NBC6 reported.

First responders then arrived on the scene, and were also left stumped. Teslas are meant to have two back-up safety mechanisms.

The first sees the door handles pop out automatically in the event of an accident, unless it happens very abruptly.

A second option can allow first responders to break the car’s window, and manually pop the doors out using a special mechanism inside.   

But neither happened, and Awan’s family insist it is because his 2016 model car was faulty. 

According to the police report, Awan was speeding at the time of the crash, with his car going around 79mph.

He was also found to be over the drink-drive limit. Tesla has denied the claims made in the lawsuit, says the car was functioning perfectly, and alleges that Awan was to blame for his own death.

But his family are standing firm, and insisting he could have been saved were it not for the car’s door handles, which they insist did not function properly. 

Dr. Omar Awan, 48, died in February 2019 after crashing his Model S on South Flamingo Road in Broward County, Florida

Firefighters were unable to reach the doctor because the retractable door hands didn’t pop out. Tesla claims it should have unless the power to the car was ‘abruptly’ cut off

After the crash, first responders claimed they were unable to open the door to the burning car because the couldn’t find a door handle. 

The luxury, futuristic car company said the handles should have automatically popped out, unless power was ‘abruptly’ cut off from the vehicle, NBC South Florida reported. Tesla also said that there is ‘mechanical back-up in place that can only be accessed from the inside of the vehicle.’ 

First responders are reportedly trained to ‘break the window and open the vehicle from the inside,’ Tesla said. 

‘They couldn’t find a door knob to try to go in that way and unfortunately were not able to extract the driver,’ a police spokesperson told NBC South Florida at the time. ‘They attempted to break the window in order to get the subject out, but were not successful. The flames were too strong, too big at that point.’ 

The door handles retract into the car while the vehicle is moving to make it more aerodynamic, but when Awan crashed, they didn’t retract out. There is reportedly a manual option inside the car. First…