Tesla has been sued over a fiery Wisconsin crash that killed all five occupants of a Model S, who were allegedly trapped inside because of a design flaw that prevented them from opening the sedan’s doors.

Jeffrey Bauer, 54, and Michelle Bauer, 55, of Crandon, Wisconsin were passengers when their Model S went off the road and struck a tree in Verona, Wisc., a suburb of Madison, on November 1, 2024. They died the next day.

According to a complaint filed on Friday by four of the Bauers’ children, the couple’s fate was sealed because the Model S’s lithium-ion battery pack caused the electronic door systems to fail.

The children said Tesla knew this could happen based on earlier fires, yet made a “conscious departure from known, feasible safety practices.”

Tesla, based in Austin, Texas and

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