The American automobile manufacturer Tesla was tried on Friday, August 1, partially responsible for a fatal accident in April 2019 in Florida on Friday, August 1, having involved one of its vehicles, a S model, with the “Autopilot” option, according to a law firm’s lawyer.
The eight members of a popular jury decided, at the end of a trial before a Federal Civil Court in Miami, grant the plaintiffs a total compensation of $ 328 million (282 million euros), explained Darren Jeffrey Rousso, of the Russo Boumel cabinet, which represented the owners.
Tesla should be responsible for $ 242 million (209 million euros), said Darren Jeffrey Rousso.
“Justice was done. The jury heard all the evidence and resulted in a fair and just verdict for our clients,” he said.
According to the complaint against Tesla in April 2021, the SUV Chevrolet Tahoe in which Naibel Benavides Leon and her boyfriend Dillon Angulo distributed on April 25, 2019 in Key Largo (Florida) was attacked at full speed by the S model for lack of being identified by the “Autopilot” promoting help device.
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The 22 -year -old girl, at the time of her death, was driven by several tens of meters, continues the complaint. Dillon Angulo was injured, but there are no details about his condition available at this stage.
“Today’s verdict is a mistake and only causes automobile safety and threatens Tesla’s efforts and industry (automotive) as a whole to design and implement a technology that saves lives,” the manufacturer reacted.
He said he intended to appeal “given important errors and legal irregularities during the trial.”
The jury “concluded that the driver was very responsible for the tragic accident”, but the elements of the archive “showed that this driver was solely responsible because he was rolling in speed, with his foot in the accelerator, which deactivated the automatic pilot, while trying to recover the phone that had dropped and without having his eyes on the street,” Tesla argued.
“No car in 2019, and no currently, he could have avoided the accident,” the manufacturer insisted.
“It is a fiction invented by the lawyers of the plaintiffs to blame the car when the driver, from the first day, recognized and accepted his responsibility” in the accident, he added.
Source: BFM TV
