the driver files a complaint against the manufacturer

It turns against the vehicle manufacturer. The driver at the wheel of a Tesla electric taxi which caused a fatal accident in December in Paris filed a complaint on Friday against the manufacturer Tesla France for “endangering the lives of others”, announced Sunday March 20 his lawyer, Sarah Saldmann. “My client has always maintained the same version: the brake no longer worked, the accelerator got carried away and that is why he is filing a complaint for ‘endangering the lives of others'”she explained to AFP, confirming information from the Parisian (article reserved for subscribers).

The complaint was filed on March 18 at the parquet floor of Versailles, the headquarters of Tesla France being in the Yvelines, west of Paris. A judicial investigation is already underway in Paris, an investigation in which the taxi driver was indicted for “manslaughter and involuntary injuries by land motor vehicle” and placed under judicial supervision. This 57-year-old man, a taxi driver for twenty-five years and residing in Essonne, was not on duty the evening of the fatal accident.

He was driving in the 13th arrondissement of Paris in his Tesla electric car with his wife and daughters when he lost control of the vehicle. The taxi hit two pedestrians, then a glass container which, under the shock caused by the speed, was thrown in the air and exploded on the ground. The vehicle then hit a traffic light, which was also thrown into the air. Then ended his race in a van in circulation in the middle of the intersection, according to the account of a police source. The accident left one dead and twenty injured.

According to Sarah Saldmann, her client had bought his vehicle new in August 2021. The investigation in Paris aims to determine, based in particular on technical expertise, whether the accident is the result of human error or a technical failure.