A mother sued Tesla after her toddler crashed a Model X into her, breaking her pelvis while she was pregnant. A jury will decide who is at fault.
- Tesla is on trial over a negligence lawsuit brought by a mom whose toddler hit her with her Model X.
- The California mom alleges in the lawsuit that the 2018 Model X was “defective” in its design.
- Tesla has argued the mother is to blame and that the Model X’s design likely saved her life.
BUSINESS INSIDER
Is Tesla to blame for a toddler crashing his family’s Model X SUV into his pregnant mother, injuring her?
That’s what a California jury will soon weigh in a civil trial that could raise questions about the vehicle’s safety features and force Elon Musk’s electric car company to pay out hefty monetary damages.
Opening statements in the trial, taking place in a Santa Clara County courtroom, are expected to begin this week.
California mom alleges that the Tesla Model X was ‘defective’
In 2019, California mother Mallory Harcourt filed a lawsuit against Tesla over the incident, accusing it of negligence, consumer fraud, and product liability. Harcourt alleges in the suit that her brand-new 2018 Model X SUV was “defective” in its design because her 2-year-old son managed to start the vehicle and hit her with it outside of the family’s Santa Barbara home on December 27, 2018.
The mother, who was eight months pregnant with her second child at the time, was left pinned to a wall in her garage when the vehicle accelerated, according to the lawsuit. Harcourt suffered broken bones and gave birth to her daughter prematurely through a broken pelvis about a week later, court documents say.
“Mallory’s injuries healed over time, but her pain is permanent,” Harcourt’s attorneys wrote in an April 8 legal brief.
“No one could reasonably expect a two-year-old who climbs into the floorboard of a vehicle that is in Park with its parking brake on to be able to cause the vehicle to start, shift out of Park and into Drive and move,” the lawyers added. “Such a vehicle is defective.”
Jurors at the trial will hear from Harcourt’s attorneys how the mother and her husband purchased a Model X as their family vehicle after seeing advertisements about it being the “safest, quickest, most capable SUV ever,” according to the brief.
The incident occurred just four days after the parents bought the Model X, and shortly after Harcourt pulled into their driveway with their son in tow.
“The vehicle automatically shifted into Park and set the parking brake,” the brief says.
