EXCLUSIVE REPORT | VERONA, WISCONSIN – What began as a night out with friends for Jeffrey and Michelle Bauer ended in a scene of unimaginable horror, their lives, along with three others, extinguished not just by a violent car crash, but by the very machine meant to carry them safely. Now, their four children have filed a devastating lawsuit against American electric vehicle giant Tesla, alleging a fatal design flaw in its Model S turned the luxury sedan into a fiery, inescapable trap.
The tragedy unfolded on the night of November 1, 2024, on a road in Verona, near Madison. According to a report from Reuters, the Tesla Model S, carrying the 54- and 55-year-old Bauers and their friends, skidded off the road and slammed into a tree. The impact was severe, and within moments, the vehicle was engulfed in flames.
The true horror, however, lay in the agonizing moments that followed. Disturbing eyewitness accounts, detailed in the legal complaint, describe hearing screams from within the burning car. But as the fire took hold, not a single door could be opened from the inside.
A “Foreseeable Risk” and a Failed Escape
The lawsuit, filed by the Bauer children on October 31 in Dane County Circuit Court, points an unwavering finger at Tesla’s electronic door system. The plaintiffs allege that the intense heat from the lithium-ion battery pack fire caused the system to fail catastrophically, automatically disabling the doors and sealing the fate of those trapped inside.
“Their design created a risk that was entirely foreseeable,” the complaint states with chilling clarity, “that people who survived a crash would be trapped inside a burning car.”
The legal filing goes further, accusing Tesla of prior knowledge of this vulnerability, citing previous incidents where similar failures were reported. Despite this, the company allegedly “ignored safety measures” and failed to implement critical design changes.
This is not an isolated concern for the automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had already initiated a probe into Tesla’s door handles in September 2025, investigating reports of their failure during accidents. The Bauer family’s case underscores this, noting that for rear-seat passengers to escape a disabled Tesla, they would need to locate a “metal tab” under the floor mat—a near-impossible task for a panicked individual during an emergency.
A Pattern of Questions
This Wisconsin incident is the latest in a series of serious questions about the safety protocols and design choices in Tesla’s vehicles. The company has previously faced scrutiny over its Autopilot technology and its automated door systems.
In a grim parallel from November last year, two college students lost their lives in a Cybertruck crash in California. Their families similarly claimed that the vehicle’s door handle design prevented escape after a fire.
For the Bauer family, the lawsuit is a quest for accountability in the face of an immense loss. The driver of the Model S, a friend of the couple, has also been named as a defendant in the suit, accused of negligent driving. But the core of the legal battle remains the allegation that a known design defect in a cutting-edge vehicle ultimately turned a survivable crash into a death sentence, leaving five people to perish behind silent, unyielding doors.
