The sole survivor of a Cybertruck crash that killed three college students in 2024 has amended his lawsuit to include Tesla.
Jordan Miller was pulled out of the burning Cybertruck by a friend who had been following behind the vehicle early in the morning of Nov. 27, 2024. The three other occupants — driver Soren Dixon and passengers Jack Nelson and Krysta Tsukahara — were killed due to smoke inhalation.
Like previous suits filed by the families of Tsukahara and Nelson, Miller originally filed a lawsuit against Dixon and Charles Patterson, Dixon’s grandfather, who owned the vehicle. Last October, the families of Tsukahara and Nelson added Tesla to their lawsuits. Miller, who originally filed his lawsuit in August 2025, filed an amended complaint on March 16.
The accident occurred just after 3 a.m. near Hampton Road and King Avenue. The vehicle jumped a curb, hit a restraining wall and a tree, and ended up pinned between the two.
Autopsies showed that Dixon had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.195 percent, well over both the legal limit for drivers under 21 (0.01) and all other drivers (0.08). Dixon also had cocaine in his system.
According to the amended lawsuit, Miller spent five days in an induced coma after the accident. He suffered burns to his airways and lungs due to smoke inhalation, needed a chest tube inserted to drain excess fluid, surgery to remove and repair half of his colon, abdominal surgery that resulted in disfigurement, spinal fusion surgery to repair four fractured vertebrae, and skin grafts due to third-degree burns.
The people involved in the accident had been at a small party. All were Piedmont High School graduates who had returned from college for Thanksgiving. Dixon wanted to show off the Cybertruck, according to a witness, and got a ride to his house to pick it up. The four got into the vehicle with two more friends following behind. The Cybertruck was traveling at a high rate of speed, according to investigators. The two friends came upon the scene right after the accident.
The witness that pulled Miller out could not immediately open the vehicle when he arrived. Cybertrucks do not have standard door handles and the windows are reportedly nearly bulletproof. The witness eventually found a tree branch that was about four inches in diameter and “four-five feet long,” according to his statement. He needed 10-15 hits on the window before he cracked the corner enough to peel it open.
He got Miller, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, out. He then attempted to get Tsukahara out, who was sitting in the rear passenger seat, but first had to smash the rearside window with the branch. By then, he said, the flames in the car were too intense to get to her.
Cybertrucks have a safety release that can be pulled from inside each door, which is the subject of YouTube instructional videos, but there is no way to know if any of the occupants were aware of this.
Similar to the other amended lawsuits, Miller’s singled out Tesla for designing the Cybertruck with no way to get victims out after an accident, due to not having traditional door handles. It cited multiple examples of deaths after crashes when passengers could not get out of the vehicles and rescuers were unable to get in.
The lawsuit also cites the battery design, both the main battery being subject to “thermal runaway” and the separate battery that operated the doors that apparently shut down after the accident.
Neither Miller nor his attorneys were available for comment. In a press release, attorney Anthony L. Label said, “When you design a vehicle with no mechanical way to open the doors from the outside, you are betting the electronics will work in every scenario, including a high-speed crash followed by a fire. Someone was there to help immediately. He couldn’t get in. This lawsuit is about what Tesla knew and what Tesla designed.”