Dad, son burned to death in Tesla days before Christmas because they couldn’t get out, lawsuit says
Published on April 6, 2026.
A 14-year-old boy and his father, Michael Smith, were killed in a Tesla Model 3 crash in Thomas County, Georgia in 2024. The boy's mother, Shantorria Herring, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla, claiming the car's features contributed to their deaths. The lawsuit alleges that many of the car’s systems stopped working when the battery pack caught fire, trapping the father and son trapped inside. It also alleges that Tesla did not have the software to allow its "autopilot" features to function properly.
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