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U.S. Officials Continue to Investigate Fatal Pedestrian Accident Involving Tesla Vehicle

Federal auto regulators continued to investigate an accident that occurred on the Long Island Expressway in July involving a Tesla vehicle that may have been using an advanced driver assistance program.

According to officers from the NYPD, a 52-year-old man died while trying to fix a flat tire on his vehicle when he was hit by a Tesla vehicle. A spokesperson from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said there was a special investigation underway to determine what happened in the accident.

Continued safety probes of autopilot Tesla vehicles

Tesla continues to test its vehicles with an autopilot mode, which takes over some driving tasks and lets driver stake their hands off the wheel for extended periods. The NHTSA opened a formal safety investigation into the autopilot feature after there were 11 crashes discovered involving Tesla vehicles and emergency vehicles.

In total, there are 33 investigations in Tesla-related crashes that involve 11 deaths since 2016. So far, three of the non-fatal accidents have had autopilot ruled out as a factor, but the safety probes will continue, especially if these accidents continue to occur.

For its part, Tesla also continues to tweak its technology to ensure sufficient safety and efficacy of its autopilot features.

NHTSA recently released an updated list of its special crash investigation crashes, and that list included this recent Long Island Expressway accident involving the Tesla Model Y.

To learn more about liability issues involving self-driving vehicles and the steps you should take if you’ve been in an accident caused by driver or manufacturer negligence, contact an experienced personal injury lawyer at Jakubowski, Robertson, Maffei, Goldsmith & Tartaglia LLP.