What happened to Michael Sheehan? Tesla sued by family of victim after 5000 degree Fahrenheit inferno death

Michael Sheehan’s family filed a lawsuit against Tesla and Tesla’s Cybertruck, claiming wrongful death due to design defects that allegedly contributed to his death due to a catastrophic fire following the accident.

On August 3, 2024, Sheehan was driving his newly purchased Tesla Cybertruck near Beach City, Texas. The Cybertruck unfortunately veered off the highway, hit a concrete culvert, and overturned.

Court documents indicated that the crash itself was "survivable," but the following events proved fatal. The Cybertruck’s battery system reportedly went into “thermal runaway,” a series of events that produced uncontrollable heat and fire.

The fire’s thermal temperature, believed to reach 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, was so intense that Michael Sheehan’s bones reportedly had thermal fracture according to Sheehan’s family attorney S. Scott West.

A Texas man named Michael Sheehan died in August 2024 after his Tesla Cybertruck crashed into a culvert, caught fire, and he was trapped inside when the power shut down - rendering the electric and external door handles inoperable pic.twitter.com/obJD68Gpxc

— SincereDoge ☕️🐾🦍 (@SincereDoge) July 23, 2025

According to The Independent, Sheehan was trapped inside the vehicle as the fire consumed it. The lawsuit claims that, after the truck lost power, the door would not open due to the electrical operation of the doors.

External handles failed, and the emergency manual latches were "unreasonably difficult to locate" in an emergency. The family claims that Tesla failed to provide any warnings on how to exit the vehicle in this scenario, or training on how to get out.

Attorney S. Scott West, a past industrial design engineer, pointed out to the court that Tesla had alternatives to batteries that would have been safer. He also stated that Tesla's design of the emergency exit as well as the lack of owner instruction, made the car a fire trap.

"Not only are you riding on top of 3,000 pounds of batteries, this ‘spaceship’ design is a double-edged sword," West told The Independent

A look into the claims made in lawsuit and Tesla’s response

The lawsuit, which was filed in June 2025 in Harris County, Texas, alleges Tesla acted negligently and incorporated defective design, and that the Cybertruck was unsafe in many ways.

Among other things, the complaint alleges the truck’s battery system was "hyper-volatile" and highly susceptible to thermal runaway, which meant the design lacked crashworthiness and did not include energy-absorbing systems around the batteries which may have reduced the likelihood of traumatic impact during a collision.

According to a report by AXIOS, the complaint also alleges that Tesla cared more about keeping the aesthetic than providing the required safety features, which led to the unfortunate death of Michael Sheehan.

The #CyberTruck doors are being sheered off at the hinges due to a weak & dangerous design flaw. I now have the pictures to prove it.

The front fenders are being hit and pushed back which breaks the pathetic hinges and leaves passengers exposed, or worse - they may end up with… pic.twitter.com/bFbrccjB14

— Jean-Guy Rubberboots (@banfsd) March 20, 2025

Tesla has yet to respond to the suit. This is the first reported wrongful death suit related to a Cybertruck, which was introduced in late 2023. The vehicle model has had several recalls related to unrelated issues such as faulty accelerator pedals and body panel issues.

The case raised much broader issues about the safety of electric vehicles in general, specifically battery fires and the ability to escape from an emergency. People experienced other fatal crashes involving Cybertrucks within months of Sheehan's death, including a crash in California that killed three college students.

Michael Sheehan’s family is pursuing damages over $1 million. Their attorney is hopeful that the case will lead to Tesla improving the safety of its vehicles.

The complaint also names The Barn Whiskey Bar where Sheehan allegedly consumed alcohol prior to the crash. The family alleges the bar overserved him and did not provide a safe alternative transportation. Although Sheehan had alcohol in his system, his lawyer argued that it did not rise to a fatal outcome given if the vehicle could have been designed differently.