Wisconsin Family Sues Tesla Over Crash That Killed 5

Tesla Model S 90 D. Photo by Peteratkins, (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

A Wisconsin family is suing Tesla over a fiery crash that left five people dead in suburban Madison last year.

The suit filed last week in Dane County Circuit Court alleges Tesla knew about design flaws that turned a survivable crash into a fatal tragedy.

“Tesla’s design choices created a highly foreseeable risk: that occupants who survived a crash would remain trapped inside a burning vehicle,” the suit alleges. “Jeffrey Bauer and Michelle Bauer did not die from the crash; they died because Defendant Tesla’s unreasonably dangerous design choices created the conditions for a fire to ignite and spread rapidly and left them with no practical means of escape.”

The people suing are four of the adult children of Jeffrey Bauer, 54, and Michelle Bauer, 55, both of Crandon. The Bauers died after they were passengers in the crash, which happened when a 2016 Model S Tesla hit a tree late at night in Verona on Nov. 1, 2024.

The crash also killed passengers Josh and Tammy Stahl, both 48, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, as well as the car’s driver, Barry Sievers, 55, of Belleville.

According to the lawsuit, the car lacked safety features that could have prevented its batteries from catching fire and causing an explosion — or at least could have slowed down the process long enough to give the passengers time to escape.

Additionally, the lawsuit says the car’s design made it difficult for the passengers to get out after the crash. Normally, the doors to the car’s backseat can be opened using buttons on the handles that draw power from the vehicle’s low-voltage system. But, during a fire, that low-voltage system typically stops working, which means the car doors can only open if they’re manually released, the suit says.

To get to that door release, back seat passengers have to lift up a section of the car’s carpet to pull on a metal tab, the lawsuit says.

“In foreseeable emergency scenarios involving power loss and fire, rear-seat passengers, including children and non-owner guests, are left to fumble blindly through smoke and flames for an unlabeled and hidden release mechanismthey were never informed existed,” the suit says.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

The suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages that would include expenses such as medical and funeral costs as well as compensation to reflect the Bauers’ pain and suffering.

The suit also names the estate of Sievers, the car’s driver, and his insurer as defendants, saying that the crash happened because of the driver’s “negligence.”

In a news release last year, the Dane County Sheriff’s Office said “road conditions, excess speed, and impaired driving” all contributed to the collision. The Wisconsin State Journal reported in April that the car’s driver and all the passengers were legally drunk at the time of the crash, according to toxicology tests.

The five people who died belonged to a group of friends, who were all enthusiastic about fundraising for Type 1 diabetes research.

The five friends were participants in an annual charity bike ride for the nonprofit Breakthrough T1D. Michelle Bauer was especially involved, and was known for emceeing ride events in Wisconsin. Her son, Jesse Alswager, died of complications from Type 1 diabetes at age 13 in 2010.

Listen to the WPR report

Wisconsin family sues Tesla over crash that killed 5 was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.