Tesla accused in lawsuit over crash that killed California couple

The family of a California couple who were killed in the crash of their Tesla has named the carmaker in a wrongful-death suit.

Mary Lou Seelandt, 66, and Karl Seelandt, 67, from Lompoc, died on July 6, 2022, when their 2015 Model S hit the back of a tractor-trailer rig at a Florida highway rest stop.

The suit filed Tuesday in a federal court in Florida says the car was “defective” and that it “malfunctioned” while Mary Lou Seelandt was driving it “as intended and designed.”

The suit does not specify the alleged defect, but it does mention the car was equipped with “crash avoidance and crash mitigation features.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent an investigative team to the crash site. It has not issued its report on the incident or said whether any driver-assistance features were in use at the time.

The Florida Highway Patrol report said the Tesla left southbound Interstate 75 at the Paynes Prairie Rest Area just before 2 p.m. July 6. Where the exit split into two lanes — one for cars, the other for trucks and buses — the Tesla veered toward the truck lot. It ran into a parked Walmart truck; the front of the Tesla went under the trailer, and its roof was crushed by impact with the lower edge.

The Seelandts, who were retired, had been on a long driving trip that included their granddaughter’s first birthday party, in Georgia, the Orlando Sentinel said.

In addition to investigating certain individual crashes, the traffic safety agency has an ongoing probe of Teslas that ran into emergency vehicles stopped on highways. Sixteen crashes are now included in that investigation; the fatal crash of a Tesla into a fire truck last month in Walnut Creek has not yet been formally added.