(New York) The American car manufacturer Tesla was judged on Friday partially responsible for a fatal accident in April 2019 in Florida who involved one of its vehicles, one Model S, with the “Autopilot” option, according to a lawyer for the complainants.
The eight members of a popular jury decided on Friday, at the end of a trial before a federal civil court in Miami, to award the complainants a total compensation of $ 328 million, told AFP Darren Jeffrey Rousso, of the Rousso Boumel cabinet, who represented rights.
He explained that the jury had set Tesla’s damage to $ 200 million.
The jurors also awarded $ 59 million to the owners of Naibel Benavides Leon and 69 million to his boyfriend Dillon Angulo, under the prejudice for endured suffering. Two thirds of this sum are the responsibility of the author of the disaster and a third party returns to Tesla.
These elements were confirmed by the database of judicial decisions of the American federal courts.
The Austin group (Texas) should ultimately be liable for $ 242 million, Rousso said.
“Justice was done. The jury heard all the evidence and resulted in a fair and fair verdict for our customers, “he said.
According to the complaint against Tesla in April 2021, the SUV Chevrolet Tahoe in which the couple was traveling on April 25, 2019 to Key Largo (Florida) was struck at full speed by the Model S for lack of being spotted by the “autopilot” driving aid device.
The young woman, aged 22 at the time of her death, was propelled over several tens of meters, continues the complaint. Dillon Angulo was injured, but no details on his condition is available at this stage.
“Today’s verdict is an error and only causes automobile security back and threatens the efforts of Tesla and the industry (automotive) as a whole to design and implement a technology that saves lives,” the manufacturer reacted in a statement transmitted to AFP.
He said he intended to appeal “given the important errors and legal irregularities during the trial”.
The jury “concluded that the driver was very largely responsible for the tragic accident” but the elements of the file “proved that this driver was solely responsible because he was driving in speeding, with the foot on the accelerator – which deactivated Autopilot – while he was looking to recover the phone he had dropped and without having his eyes on the street,” argued Tesla.
“No car in 2019, and no currently, could have avoided the accident,” said the manufacturer.
“It is a fiction concocted by the complainants’ lawyers to blame the car when the driver – from the first day – recognized and accepted his responsibility” of the accident, he added.
