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NHTSA Opens Investigation Into Tesla Model 3 Crash That Killed Woman in Texas
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a special investigation Monday into a Friday crash near Houston in which a Tesla Model 3 using automated driving technology struck a home at high speed and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila. The driver told police he had engaged the feature.
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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a special investigation Monday into a Tesla Model 3 crash that killed a 76-year-old woman standing inside a home near Houston. The crash occurred Friday in Katy, Texas, when the vehicle left the roadway, crossed the front lawn of a brick home at 1907 Blooming Park Lane and struck the front room at 73 mph.
Martha Avila was pronounced dead at a hospital from her injuries.
The driver was taken to a local hospital. The driver told the Harris County Sheriff's Office that he was using the automated driving technology at the time and that the accelerator remained pressed at 100 percent after impact. Police reported no signs of intoxication and said the driver is cooperating with investigators.
A doorbell camera video captured the car traveling at high speed over the lawn before ramming into the residence. NHTSA has opened 46 special crash investigations involving Teslas using self-driving or driver-assistance technology over the past decade. In more than a dozen of those cases at least one person was killed.
The agency also opened an investigation late last year into 58 incidents in which Teslas reportedly violated traffic safety laws while using the technology, resulting in more than a dozen crashes and fires and nearly two dozen injuries. A separate probe a few months earlier examined whether Tesla had failed to report crashes promptly as required.
Ashok Elluswamy, head of Tesla's artificial intelligence efforts, wrote on X that the driver had manually overridden the system by pressing the accelerator fully in a residential area.
