Door crushed on my 3yo daughter's hand, door handle failure to release lock, ...
My 3yo daughter had her hand crushed by the passenger door today. Note that I am not talking about retracting handles, I am talking about the door itself.
I took a photo using a stuffed animal to replicate the incident.
Basically here is what happened. My daughter was standing by the front passenger door and opened it. Not to go in or anything. She was just outside with me as I was getting some items from the car. I was behind her and had opened the rear door to get some papers in the back. My daughter closed the front door and was just standing there as I reached into the back to get the papers. I did not take notice of my daughter as I closed the rear door. I walk past her again thinking nothing when she starts to cry. I turn around and immediately notice something wrong and see her hand caught. As I reach towards the handle of the front door I take notice that see she didn't close the front door all the way. You know, it was only slightly shut, but enough for the electromechanical lock to catch. The first thought that pops into my head was ok she just slipped her hand in there after the doors were closed but she didnt fully close the front and it just got stuck. No big deal I think. Shes just being dramatic. If she can slip it in she can slip it out. I grabbed the still extended front passenger door handle with my right hand and give it a tug.
NOTHING.
Pulled harder.
NOTHING.
Then I see the pain on her face and she starting to really cry in pain I knew it was worse. I then looked at her stuck hand and trying to see if I could slip it out. Her hand was crushed inside there right down the center of the palm.
Did I get it wrong? Did she slam the front door on her own hand and I didn't notice?? I pulled much harder on the door handle. SH*T THE GOD DAMN DOOR IS STUCK. Classic MS door handle problem.
I immediately dropped everything I was carrying and put both hands on the door handle and put all my weight into pulling on it. DAMMIT NOTHING. Not a budge, nada, there is no forcing this door open. At this point my daughter is screaming bloody murder in pain . The next thought that popped into my head was that I am going to have to fully close this door to get this electromechanical lock to fully engage so I can unlock it. But this is going to further crush her hand and probably break her hand and fingers if they weren't already.
I can't do this. No way I was going to do that.
Then I realize I am carrying a crowbar in the trunk. I don't give a crap if this car cost me $100k, my daughter's hand is crushed and possibly broken, I'll take the god damn jaws of life to it if I have to to get my daughters hand out of there.
As I race past her towards the trunk that's when It suddenly clicked: holy crap, she didn't get her hand stuck, she didnt slam the door on her own hand. she had already closed the door and was holding the jamb with her left hand as I closed the REAR DOOR (with force) and CRUSHED her hand on there when the front tip of the rear passenger door pivoted back outwards crushing it against the front door. OMG I can't believe I did this.
I race to the rear door handle and yank it. Door opens and my daughter's hand is released. I glance at her hand and there is a huge indentation/crease across both sides of her hand and then her hand and fingers start turning blue. We race her inside and immediately sandwich two bags of frozen vegetables on her hand and then start monitoring her reactions and responses for a few seconds to gauge the damage and pain that she is in. She is all shaken up and crying hysterically as I quickly gather my thoughts on how to get to the nearest hospital. Part of these racing thoughts are that I just moved into this house a month ago in new town in a new state and I have no idea where a hospital even is.
Besides all those thoughts racing a few moments pass and she starts calming down. As we keep peeking at her hand its all swollen up but I observe her opening and closing her hand to fist and opening so my senses were telling me her fingers are not broken and her hand is not broken. After about 10 minutes of icing the color was returning to normal and the swelling really went down and she seemed fine actually. the pain went away and she was back to herself. but OMG that was definitely an immediately onslaught of tragic incident thinking that I just crushed and broke my daughters hand and her fingers. The total amount of time between when I closed the rear door and when I opened it up again was only about 20-30 seconds but when you're daughter is screaming in pain that 30 seconds feel's like an eternity. It was totally an accident. She's in bed now and i'll check on her in a bit and in the morning again to see if her fingers and hand are ok. Maybe they'll be black and blue but she doesn't seem to have any pain right now when opening or closing her first or when you touch her hand or fingers in any way so nothing seems broken and I think all is good.
But this really points out a major flaw in the design of the door handles: there is no mechanical external release. Most of us on here are familiar with the classic door handle stuck issue. These door handles have had there fair share of multiple problems but never did I imagine I'd have an emergency type situation like this where I needed it to release and it wouldn't. It is also worth noting I have the original 1st general handles. But AFAIK all generations are still fully electromagnetic and have no mechanical release from the outside. It did not occur to be to go around the car through the drivers side to pull on the passenger door handle from the inside. Again it was really only 20-30 seconds that passed with her hand crushed in there. Also partially the reason this was not worse than it could have been was because that front door was not fully closed. If it was fully closed I don't see how her hand or fingers would have escaped being broken. But therein also lies the other problem - its very easy to get the door to stick like this when it is not fully shut. opening and partially closing the doors a bunch of times can easily replicate this.
I do know that from the inside there is both a mechanical release as well as an electromagnetic release because when I had the aluminum corrosion issue on the side mirrors the service center forgot to plug back in the wiring harness for the door handle and mine was actually falling into the mechanical release mechanism from the inside for months until my next service visit where they told me they screwed up and forget to connect it back in. That tells me that there is both a mechanical release and and eletromagnetic one but the flaw here is that from the outside its only the electromagnetic one that triggers. when that fails, there's no opening up the door. you're screwed as you were in my case.
I don't know what to expect posting this on here. I just wanted a PSA really to make others aware if this ever happens to you (technically this generally would apply to any car, except that in this case it was the failure of Tesla's door handles that caused her hand to be crushed for much longer than they needed to be), but at least now you also know that you should also be able to open the door from the inside if you need to for any reason.
My 3yo daughter had her hand crushed by the passenger door today. Note that I am not talking about retracting handles, I am talking about the door itself.
I took a photo using a stuffed animal to replicate the incident.
Basically here is what happened. My daughter was standing by the front passenger door and opened it. Not to go in or anything. She was just outside with me as I was getting some items from the car. I was behind her and had opened the rear door to get some papers in the back. My daughter closed the front door and was just standing there as I reached into the back to get the papers. I did not take notice of my daughter as I closed the rear door. I walk past her again thinking nothing when she starts to cry. I turn around and immediately notice something wrong and see her hand caught. As I reach towards the handle of the front door I take notice that see she didn't close the front door all the way. You know, it was only slightly shut, but enough for the electromechanical lock to catch. The first thought that pops into my head was ok she just slipped her hand in there after the doors were closed but she didnt fully close the front and it just got stuck. No big deal I think. Shes just being dramatic. If she can slip it in she can slip it out. I grabbed the still extended front passenger door handle with my right hand and give it a tug.
NOTHING.
Pulled harder.
NOTHING.
Then I see the pain on her face and she starting to really cry in pain I knew it was worse. I then looked at her stuck hand and trying to see if I could slip it out. Her hand was crushed inside there right down the center of the palm.
Did I get it wrong? Did she slam the front door on her own hand and I didn't notice?? I pulled much harder on the door handle. SH*T THE GOD DAMN DOOR IS STUCK. Classic MS door handle problem.
I immediately dropped everything I was carrying and put both hands on the door handle and put all my weight into pulling on it. DAMMIT NOTHING. Not a budge, nada, there is no forcing this door open. At this point my daughter is screaming bloody murder in pain . The next thought that popped into my head was that I am going to have to fully close this door to get this electromechanical lock to fully engage so I can unlock it. But this is going to further crush her hand and probably break her hand and fingers if they weren't already.
I can't do this. No way I was going to do that.
Then I realize I am carrying a crowbar in the trunk. I don't give a crap if this car cost me $100k, my daughter's hand is crushed and possibly broken, I'll take the god damn jaws of life to it if I have to to get my daughters hand out of there.
As I race past her towards the trunk that's when It suddenly clicked: holy crap, she didn't get her hand stuck, she didnt slam the door on her own hand. she had already closed the door and was holding the jamb with her left hand as I closed the REAR DOOR (with force) and CRUSHED her hand on there when the front tip of the rear passenger door pivoted back outwards crushing it against the front door. OMG I can't believe I did this.
I race to the rear door handle and yank it. Door opens and my daughter's hand is released. I glance at her hand and there is a huge indentation/crease across both sides of her hand and then her hand and fingers start turning blue. We race her inside and immediately sandwich two bags of frozen vegetables on her hand and then start monitoring her reactions and responses for a few seconds to gauge the damage and pain that she is in. She is all shaken up and crying hysterically as I quickly gather my thoughts on how to get to the nearest hospital. Part of these racing thoughts are that I just moved into this house a month ago in new town in a new state and I have no idea where a hospital even is.
Besides all those thoughts racing a few moments pass and she starts calming down. As we keep peeking at her hand its all swollen up but I observe her opening and closing her hand to fist and opening so my senses were telling me her fingers are not broken and her hand is not broken. After about 10 minutes of icing the color was returning to normal and the swelling really went down and she seemed fine actually. the pain went away and she was back to herself. but OMG that was definitely an immediately onslaught of tragic incident thinking that I just crushed and broke my daughters hand and her fingers. The total amount of time between when I closed the rear door and when I opened it up again was only about 20-30 seconds but when you're daughter is screaming in pain that 30 seconds feel's like an eternity. It was totally an accident. She's in bed now and i'll check on her in a bit and in the morning again to see if her fingers and hand are ok. Maybe they'll be black and blue but she doesn't seem to have any pain right now when opening or closing her first or when you touch her hand or fingers in any way so nothing seems broken and I think all is good.
But this really points out a major flaw in the design of the door handles: there is no mechanical external release. Most of us on here are familiar with the classic door handle stuck issue. These door handles have had there fair share of multiple problems but never did I imagine I'd have an emergency type situation like this where I needed it to release and it wouldn't. It is also worth noting I have the original 1st general handles. But AFAIK all generations are still fully electromagnetic and have no mechanical release from the outside. It did not occur to be to go around the car through the drivers side to pull on the passenger door handle from the inside. Again it was really only 20-30 seconds that passed with her hand crushed in there. Also partially the reason this was not worse than it could have been was because that front door was not fully closed. If it was fully closed I don't see how her hand or fingers would have escaped being broken. But therein also lies the other problem - its very easy to get the door to stick like this when it is not fully shut. opening and partially closing the doors a bunch of times can easily replicate this.
I do know that from the inside there is both a mechanical release as well as an electromagnetic release because when I had the aluminum corrosion issue on the side mirrors the service center forgot to plug back in the wiring harness for the door handle and mine was actually falling into the mechanical release mechanism from the inside for months until my next service visit where they told me they screwed up and forget to connect it back in. That tells me that there is both a mechanical release and and eletromagnetic one but the flaw here is that from the outside its only the electromagnetic one that triggers. when that fails, there's no opening up the door. you're screwed as you were in my case.
I don't know what to expect posting this on here. I just wanted a PSA really to make others aware if this ever happens to you (technically this generally would apply to any car, except that in this case it was the failure of Tesla's door handles that caused her hand to be crushed for much longer than they needed to be), but at least now you also know that you should also be able to open the door from the inside if you need to for any reason.
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