Ethical behavior is learned behavior. Often the lessons are extremely painful and tragic as well. Ethical behavior also encompasses personal responsibility and sadly personal responsibility seems to be short supply these days. I must start this post by saying that I am (obviously) not an automotive engineer, nor am I a defense attorney. In this ethical lesson, both professions may be called into play. When is it time to learn responsibility?
The Details
An 18-year-old teenager, Edgar Monserratt Martinez, was the passenger who was sitting in the front seat of a Tesla sedan that was involved in a horrific crash. Shortly after impact the battery of the 2014 Tesla allegedly burst into flames and caused a massive fire. Both the driver and Martinez were killed. A third passenger was thrown from the car and injured. This tragedy occurred in May 2018.
Here is where the attorneys come into play. Said Chicago attorney Philip Corboy Jr.
“The Tesla S sedan had inadequate measures to prevent a post-collision fire and had inadequate measures to contain a fire.”
As with so many ethical dilemmas, we need to examine the entire story to gain a better perspective. The driver of the Tesla, also 18, was clocked for speeding in March 2018 to the tune of 112 miles per hour. He was ticketed. At that time, his parents had a governor device installed in the car to limit the car’s top speed to 85 mph. The teenaged driver went back to Tesla, without his parent’s knowledge, and had the device removed.
On the night of the May crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, the 2014 Tesla was going 116 mph when it crashed into a curved wall. The airbags deployed after the crash had slowed the car to about 86 mph. The NTSB report stated that the Tesla missed fully slamming into a curve with a 25-mph limit, but did hit that curb twice. Upon those hits, the Tesla burst into flames. Said Tesla “Our thoughts continue to be with the families affected by this tragedy. Unfortunately, no car could have withstood a high-speed crash of this kind.”
Witnesses to the crash said the Tesla was in the process of passing another vehicle and the teenage driver lost control. It was reported that the battery caught fire twice after the initial flames at the scene had been extinguished. It is a flaw with batteries of electric cars and that is the point the parents of Edgar Martinez are trying to make.
The Consequences of Our Choices -When Is It Time to Learn Responsibility?
Every choice has a consequence. In this tragedy, there is an ongoing series of bad choices. I might start with the observation that in Florida, a teen of 15 is eligible to receive a driver’s permit. By 16, and between the hours of 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., a teen may have passengers. Between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., until the driver is 21, he or she must be accompanied by an adult. The leeway’s in this law astound me.
I am not certain of the exact age of Barrett Riley, the driver, when he picked up his first major speeding violation of 112 mph (17 or 18), but why he was allowed to continue to drive mystifies me. When is it time to learn responsibility?
He had the governor device removed without his parent’s knowledge. As an 18-year-old, he was capable of telling the mechanics to do so, but it is rather obvious as to why he did so. He had the need for speed. Did the Tesla mechanics have an obligation to report to Riley’s parents that he removed the governor? Probably not.
As to the crash, in study after study, data suggest that at the speed the teens were driving, that losing control and crashing at 116 mph will invariably lead to death or horrific injuries. These were teens, not NASCAR drivers. Even if alcohol or drugs were not involved, a car traveling at 116 mph, then slamming into a curve, is a guarantee of something tragic.
There are, sadly, numerous accident fatalities with gasoline engines that catch fire as well. It would seem that the lawyers are seizing upon an opportunity to go after Tesla for a high-speed accident simply because the company has deep pockets. I’d be amazed if the case weren’t thrown out.
This tragedy is a cascade of one bad decision after another, caused by one bad choice after another. Was the State of Florida at fault, the parents of the teenaged driver, the Tesla mechanics or the inability of the teenaged driver and his teenaged friend to think in a clear and ethical sense. I believe it is all of them. They must all bear the consequences.
