The parents of a college student in a Tesla crash say she was killed by flames and smoke as she tried but failed to escape the burning car because of a design flaw making it difficult to open the doors in fires, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The parents of Krysta Tsukahara allege that the company that has helped Elon Musk become the world’s richest man knew about the flaw for years and could have moved fast to fix the problem but did not, leaving the 19-year-old arts student to die in horrible way — burned from the flames and suffocating in the fumes.

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The new legal threat to Tesla filed in Alameda County Superior Court comes just weeks after federal regulators opened an investigation into complaints by Tesla drivers of

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