A little more than 3 months after the fatal accident which occurred on December 11 in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, the G7 taxi driver at the origin of the collision – indicted in the file – announced that he had filed a complaint against Tesla.
The driver’s lawyer, Me Sarah Salmann, filed a complaint “for endangering the lives of others” on Friday March 18 against the American car manufacturer, we learned this Sunday March 20 in the columns of Parisian , and this while the investigators now favor the track of the technical failure.
“The brake pedal stuck”
“My client is very shocked […] It’s an accident for him, he did everything to press the brake pedal which remained blocked, the car got carried away and drove excessively fast”, had moreover indicated his lawyer during the setting in review of his client a few days after the accident in December, pointing out that his car was not equipped with a handbrake.
As a reminder, the collision took place on the evening of Saturday December 11 at the intersection of avenues de Choisy and d’Ivry and rue de Tolbiac (13th), when a black taxi from the American brand Tesla drove uncontrollably on this crossroads, killing one person, who was traveling on a Vélib’, and around twenty injured, including a man placed in a coma until recently.
The bona fide taxi driver
According to the first elements of the investigation, the track of the failure is indeed advanced, while all the testimonies seem to agree to explain that the taxi driver – aged 57 and holder of the license since 1984 displaying all his points – has did everything to try to stop his crazy car, while his whole family was in the car.
A version confirmed by passers-by, as well as his wife and two daughters present at his side, explaining that he had voluntarily shifted on the cycle path to the side, in order to slow down the Tesla using the yellow studs of the coronapiste. Without success. Seemingly in good faith, this man is unknown to the police, and had neither drunk nor consumed narcotics, according to the investigation.
To support his complaint, his lawyer even listed recent accidents involving Teslas. Result: at least 11 serious traffic accidents in which a Tesla was involved have occurred worldwide, some of which have been followed by complaints filed against the American firm, particularly in the United States.
A few days after this accident, the G7 company had also announced that it was shutting down all Tesla Model 3 taxis. According to G7, around thirty drivers were affected by this suspension, without giving the exact number of this model in its fleet, some vehicles can be shared.