— A Georgia Tesla wrongful death lawsuit says 14-year-old Karter Breon Smith was killed because a 2021 Tesla Model 3 was defective.
The Tesla Model 3 crash occurred December 23, 2024, on Highway 35 in Thomas County, Georgia, and much of the lawsuit focuses on Tesla's driver assistance features.
The lawsuit says the owner and driver of the Tesla Model 3 was "Margarrett Breon Smith," but Georgia officials and local media say it was 35-year-old Magarret Brion Smith. His passenger was his son, Karter Smith.
The lawsuit was filed by Karter's mother Shantorria Herring, the ex-wife of the Tesla driver.
Herring originally told local media that she believed her ex-husband fell asleep while driving. At that time she said: “They were asleep when it happened, and it was instant.”
However, her wrongful death lawsuit places all the blame on the 2021 Tesla Model 3.
The Georgia State Patrol reported Mr. Smith lost control of the Tesla and traveled off the left side of Highway 35 before the Model 3 went into a pecan orchard and hit a pecan tree. The crash caused the Tesla to burst into flames, killing both occupants.
According to the lawsuit, multiple features of the Model 3 failed which caused the crash.
The plaintiff claims her son died because the Tesla Model 3:
"[F]ailed to activate or did not correctly operate to maintain the subject Tesla Model 3 within its lane of travel, failed to detect that the vehicle was departing its lane, did not steer the vehicle back into the driving lane, did not apply corrective steering to keep the vehicle in its intended lane, failed to detect and warn of the stationary object in the path of the vehicle (a tree), caused or failed to reduce the risk of unintended acceleration or failed to activate the brakes to bring the vehicle to a stop, and/or failed to provide audible warnings and autonomous emergency braking to stop the vehicle and prevent it from crashing into the tree."
The lawsuit also alleges the event data recorder said the, "'Accelerator Pedal (%)' went from 0.0 (with a speed of 63 mph) to 100.0 without any significant change in vehicle speed and without any reported 'Service Brake' recording."
The plaintiff further claims the “Autopilot” and/or “self-driving“ features were defective and failed, which caused the Model 3 to leave the highway and crash. She argues the lane departure, auto-steer and automatic emergency braking features "were either defectively designed or malfunctioned" and caused the crash that killed her son.
Also allegedly defective were the door handles and the lithium-ion battery pack which caught fire after the crash.
The Tesla Model 3 wrongful death lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta Division): Shantorria Herring, on behalf of Karter Breon Smith, v. Tesla, Inc.
The plaintiff is represented by Seay/Felton, LLC, and Parks Law, LLC.
