At a Tesla fire in South Korea, helpers couldn't get the door open. Three authorities are now examining the case. Families are also suing in the USA, and Tesla is recalling vehicles in China.
In an accident in Korea, the driver was unable to free himself from the car. Photo: NA TV
On October 10, 2024, a truck driver in Anseong had to break the window of a burning Tesla Model Y because the door would not open. The driver died in the back seat.
There have been at least 15 deaths in similar incidents in the United States. Since September 2025, the US transportation authority NHTSA has been examining 174,000 Model Ys whose doors cannot be opened from the outside when the battery is weak.
The consumer organization Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty filed a criminal complaint against Tesla Korea and three managing directors.
The summary was created and editorially checked using AI.
Dusseldorf. The front of the Tesla was crushed on a wall. Flames burst from under the car. Someone in the back seat kicked the window. A truck driver rushed over and tried to open the door of the white Model Y. It didn't open.
This happened on October 10, 2024, on Provincial Road 23 near Anseong, south of Seoul. The helper got a tool out of his truck and broke a window. Thick, brown smoke billowed from the Tesla. The man could no longer get to the car.
The Korean fire department received an emergency call at 5:45 p.m., and the first squad arrived at the scene of the accident six minutes later. It took 58 emergency services until 6:56 p.m. to extinguish the fire. At 7:53 p.m. they recovered the dead driver. He was lying in the back seat, behind the driver's seat. The case continues to concern the authorities to this day.
Condolences regardless of guilt
Two years later, Seo Young-deuk, the head of Tesla Korea, sits as a witness in the National Assembly's Transportation Committee. The MPs invited him to their annual review of the government's work. According to SEO, Tesla Korea sold around 89,000 cars this year through the end of September.
MP Hwang Un-ha wants to know whether he knows about Anseong's accident. “I heard about it,” Seo replies. Hwang presents the report to the fire department. The door couldn't be opened from the inside or from the outside, he tells the manager. "Isn't this a serious problem?"
Does Tesla plan to recall this or not? Hwang Un-ha member of the Korean National Assembly
Seo expresses his condolences, “regardless of guilt or innocence.” There is a device in a Tesla that allows the doors to be opened by hand. “What’s that supposed to be?” asks Hwang. Does Seo mean the cover that you have to tear off and then pull on a string?
“Right,” replies the manager, “the front seats and...”. He doesn't get any further. “Does Tesla plan to recall this or not?” adds Hwang. Seo begins with "In China..." then the MP cuts him off: "Stop it, too much time has passed."
Vehicle data burned
The Handelsblatt has the documents that the fire brigade, police and the Ministry of Transport wrote about Anseong's accident. The day after the accident, a police officer announced that the car's locking system would be analyzed by the National Forensics Institute. Investigators suspected the driver swerved backwards to avoid the flames and then failed to get out of the Model Y.
In the video of a driver shown by the broadcaster MBC, the left rear light of the burning car is still lit. Vehicle expert Lee Ho-geun from Daeduk University wrote a week after the accident that the connection to the 12-volt supply was probably not severed. The fire brigade, police, forensic experts and the traffic safety authority then examined the wreckage in a Tesla service center.
Safety concerns
Recessed handles endanger occupants: China recalls millions of cars – Tesla severely affected
According to the police, the institute identified the manual unlocking cables on the front and back doors. It is not clear from the police summary whether they worked and were accessible. Youngsuk Choi heads the automobile committee of the consumer organization Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty. He says it's also possible that "parts of cables were simply found in the doors."
Nothing could be read from the burned SD card with the driving data. The fire department cites the cause of the personal injury as “rapid combustion due to thermal runaway of the battery cells.” The police listed the Tesla as the “accused’s vehicle.” She closed the file because the driver was dead.
Crash test for finding the truth
The Ministry of Transport ordered an audit at the end of October 2024. According to the test report, the reason was media reports about the doors of Tesla vehicles after Anseong's accident. It was checked whether Tesla complied with the regulations for occupant protection in the event of a collision.
The testing center purchased a test car and drove it into a deformable barrier at 56.53 kilometers per hour on December 13th. It was a Model 3, built in Shanghai. The locks were then unlocked and all four doors could be opened without tools.
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The result was “fulfilled”. The inspectors did not record whether the doors were opened from the inside or outside, electrically or manually. According to the report, it remained with one vehicle and one crash test “taking into account the overall framework conditions such as budget and schedule”. The authorities did not inspect a Model Y.
For the Model 3 from 2017 to 2023, the Korean manual only mentions the lever on the front doors for emergency opening. Tesla's workshop manual tells you how to open a back door without power. The mechanic loosens a screw under the armrest, removes a cover and pulls the cable out of the door panel with a hook.
Why the door of Anseong's Model Y did not open is not stated in any of the three reports. Tesla left a query about this unanswered.
Deaths worldwide
The problem with the Tesla doors is known worldwide. In Germany, two young people died in the back seat of a Model S near Dobbrikow in Brandenburg in 2022. First responders were unable to get the rear doors open. Experts from the testing company Dekra later wrote for the public prosecutor’s office about a “failure of this security function”. If the doors had functioned correctly, “the two occupants remaining in the back seat could have been rescued.”
After the Handelsblatt reported on this in 2024, the ADAC automobile club recommended that Tesla vehicles carry an emergency window hammer. The Federal Motor Transport Authority said it was lobbying the United Nations Economic Commission to adjust the requirements. When asked, the authority announced that the working group there had made “noticeable progress”: retractable door handles should extend automatically after an accident or be otherwise accessible from the outside. The final draft should be available in December 2026.
Accident scene near Dobbrikow: First responders reported that they were unable to open the back doors of the Tesla. Photo: 7aktuell.de
In the USA, at the end of October 2025, a 20-year-old drove off the road in his 2021 Model Y in Easton, Massachusetts. He survived the impact and called 911: he couldn't get out, the car was on fire. Police found his remains in the back seat. In February 2026, his family sued Tesla in federal court.
Other families are suing in California, Wisconsin and Texas. The Bloomberg news agency counted at least 15 deaths in a dozen accidents in December 2025. In each case, the doors of a burning Tesla could not be opened. Since September 2025, the US transportation authority NHTSA has been examining around 174,000 Model Ys whose doors could not be opened from the outside when the battery was weak.
In China, Tesla announced a recall for almost three million vehicles in August 2026. The mechanical emergency release is “difficult to recognize and operate,” the company writes on its website. In the event of a serious accident, occupants may not be able to open the doors quickly. Eight other manufacturers, including Xiaomi and Xpeng, recalled vehicles because of the emergency openers on the same day.
Advertisement in Seoul
In Korea, Choi's consumer organization filed a criminal complaint on October 7 against Tesla Korea, Seo and two other executives, David John Feinstein and Rakesh Bhatia. She accuses them of neither disclosing nor correcting safety defects in their vehicles. This carries a prison sentence of up to ten years.
The complaint is based on the Motor Vehicle Administration Act, which requires manufacturers and importers to immediately disclose and correct deficiencies in safe operation. The complaint does not specify the cause of Anseong's accident. The organization cites the emergency door openers as a defect.
In a Tesla, the handles are flush with the body and the doors open electrically at the push of a button.
Not all Model Ys are equipped with a manual rear door release. Tesla's Model Y Manual 2020-2024
If the power goes out, the occupants only have a mechanical unlocking option. Consumer advocates call them the “last resort”. On most models it is located in a place that is difficult to find. On the Model Y there is a lever in front of the window switches on the front doors. Tesla's manual describes three steps for the rear doors: take the mat out of the door compartment, loosen the cover using a red tab, and pull the rope forward.
The same chapter states: “Not all Model Ys are equipped with a manual rear door release.” The doors can only be opened electrically from the outside. It is not the organization's first complaint against Tesla. In June 2021, she reported Tesla Korea, the US headquarters and Elon Musk over the Model X and Model S door handles.
Police in Seoul did not pass the case on to prosecutors a year later due to lack of evidence. With the recall in China, Tesla itself acknowledged the defect, argues consumer advocate Choi. This is evidence “that did not exist in 2021”.
An unexplained death
The next day, Seo sits on the committee. After him, Choi also testified as a witness. He criticizes that the authorities only viewed the accident from their own perspective. The survivors would probably only find out the result through this hearing. "The essence of this accident is that someone died because he couldn't get out."
“Is just the explanation that there is an emergency opening device enough?” writes MP Hwang after the questioning. Consumer advocates are calling for a regulation that allows doors to be opened quickly from any seat, even without electricity. Her reasoning: “An accident can happen to anyone.”
