Toddler was able to start ‘defective’ Tesla and crashed into pregnant mom, lawsuit says
A woman bought a new Tesla Model X in 2018, believing it was the “safest SUV on the market” as the company had advertised, while pregnant with her second child, according to a lawsuit.
The vehicle, however, proved “defective” when Mallory Harcourt’s 2-year-old son was able to start the car, causing it to jolt forward and hit her at her home in Santa Barbara, California, in December 2018, two days after Christmas, an April 8 trial brief filed by her attorneys says.
Harcourt was eight and a half months pregnant at the time, according to the brief.
Now, a jury will decide whether Tesla is to blame for the crash after Harcourt filed a lawsuit against the company. The case has since been transferred to California Superior Court in Santa Clara County.
The jury trial is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. PT on Thursday, April 11,, court records show.
Tesla and attorneys representing the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from McClatchy News on April 9 and 10.
Due to the accident, Harcourt delivered her daughter prematurely with a broken pelvis during what was described as an “excruciating” birth in an April 1 news release issued by her legal counsel.
Don Slavik of Slavik Law and Elise Sanguinetti of Arias Sanguinetti are representing Harcourt.
How the crash unfolded
The jury will hear from Harcourt’s attorneys about how she and her husband, Adam, purchased the Tesla Model X because “the vehicle’s apparent safety appealed to (them),” according to the trial brief.
“Tesla advertised the Model X as perfect for young children,” the trial brief says.
On Dec. 27, 2018, Harcourt drove home from her husband’s chiropractic clinic with her toddler in the new Tesla, according to the brief.
When she arrived home, she parked in the driveway, removed her son from the vehicle and left the driver’s door open, the brief says. She was unloading groceries at the time, according to the release.
Harcourt soon realized she left her house keys at her husband’s office and couldn’t get inside, the brief says.
Since she needed to change her son’s diaper, she grabbed a diaper bag from the Tesla and went to change his diaper in the garage, where she “set up a changing station,” according to the trial brief.
Inside the garage, Harcourt’s son “escaped” her side, walked over to the Tesla and climbed in, the brief says.
She called after her son and headed toward him as he turned on the car, according to the release.
The trial brief says the boy, while in the footwell of the vehicle, made contact with the brake pedal and the car started — causing the driver’s door to automatically close.
“Seconds later, (the boy) reached up and touched the gear shift lever on the stalk of the steering wheel, which shifted the car out of park and into drive,” according to the brief. “(He) then contacted the accelerator pedal, which caused the car to begin moving forward.”
From Harcourt’s perspective inside the garage, she saw the Tesla accelerate toward her at a speed of more than 8 mph, according to the brief.
She “had virtually no time to react” as the Tesla lurched forward into the garage and hit her, the brief says.
Harcourt cried out to her neighbors across the street for help and requested someone call 911 as she felt severe pain from broken bones, the brief says. She heard her bones break, according to her attorneys.
She was taken to a hospital and gave birth to her daughter a week later, according to the brief.
Harcourt’s attorneys argue the collision occurred “due to the Tesla’s unsafe design,” the release said.
What Tesla says
Attorneys for Tesla contend Harcourt is responsible for the December 2018 accident, according to Tesla’s proposed statement on the case filed April 8.
Tesla fully denies that the 2018 Tesla Model X purchased by the Harcourts had defects.
Harcourt’s injuries were “a result of Ms. Harcourt’s own negligence in leaving her son unattended,” the statement says.
Meanwhile, Harcourt’s attorneys argue that while it would be reasonable to predict a toddler could climb inside the footwell of a car, “no one would expect a toddler to be able to cause the car to start,” the trial brief says.
The crash caused Harcourt to spend more than a week in the hospital and cost her over $73,000 in medical expenses, according to her attorneys.
Though her injuries healed, her pain persists, the trial brief says. Additionally, her son still experiences emotional trauma from the collision, according to the release.
Harcourt seeks to recover an unspecified amount in damages for medical expenses, emotional distress and more, an April 8 proposed statement of the case filed by her attorneys says.
The trial comes after Tesla settled a separate civil case in California related to the 2018 death of Walter Huang, an Apple engineer who died when his Model X crashed while the vehicle’s autopilot feature was activated on a highway in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Mercury News reported.
The case was settled for an undisclosed monetary amount, court records filed Monday show, according to the outlet.
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