In a tragic and often repeating story, another speeding Tesla hit a bump, lost control and killed someone.

According to the Powell Police Department, the crash happened in the 3400 block of Club Way Court at Powell Grand Communities around 9:15 p.m.

One person, Ethan Blecke, was taken to Riverside Methodist Hospital where he was pronounced dead hours later. Police Chief Ron Sallows said one other person was hospitalized and is now listed as stable. Three others were treated at the scene.

Sallows said it appears a 16-year-old boy was driving a Tesla, with five other people inside the vehicle, at a high rate of speed when he hit a speed bump, lost control and struck several other vehicles. The Tesla also hit part of a garage attached to one of the apartment buildings.

This is not an isolated incident. According to a 2024 iSeeCars study analyzing NHTSA data, Tesla has the highest fatal crash rate of any auto brand—5.6 deaths per billion miles driven, double the national average of 2.8.

The Model Y specifically clocks in at 10.6, nearly four times the average.

These numbers exist despite Tesla’s vehicles routinely gaming top crash-test safety ratings, which reveals the gap between surviving an impact and avoiding one in the first place.

Court rooms don’t call the Tesla a death trap for nothing.

The Demographic Shift

In the past, news about Tesla-related fatalities usually involved older couples (reflecting the car’s initial marketing as exclusive to those who could afford one). However, recently, there has been a noticeable shift towards reports of groups of teenagers being harmed, reflecting the car’s present reality as a cheap thrill status symbol.

The Model 3 now starts at $38,630. Used Model 3s have plummeted to around $20,000. What was once a fake luxury purchase for the elderly is now accessible to any teenager whose parents want to be projecting fake luxury, while handing their child the keys to a car that accelerates them into a tree faster than they can think.

The shift in who is killed stems from a dangerous combination.

Elderly couples are now wise to the fraudulent safety claims and choose a different brand to project status. Young adults haven’t gotten that memo, combined with an overconfidence making them unable to respond adequately in an unnecessarily powerful car.

Tesla Tragedy Keeps Happening:

• November 2025, St. Paul: A 22-year-old driving a Tesla at 84 mph in a 55 zone accelerated past 100 mph before killing a 31-year-old. Both the driver and his passenger claimed no memory of the crash.
• August 2024, Broward County: A 19-year-old in a Tesla traveling at high speed T-boned a Dodge Durango, killing two people including a juvenile critically injured.
• July 2025, Bay Area: An 18-year-old Tesla driver collided with a motorcycle, killing a 61-year-old man and 59-year-old woman.

The iSeeCars analyst noted that modern cars are safer than ever in crash tests, yet “these safety features are being countered by distracted driving and higher rates of speed.”

Tesla’s design choices are the worst in the industry, and actively encourage both:

• Instant torque without feedback. In an ICE car, acceleration comes with warning—engine noise, rising RPMs, a mechanical lag that gives your brain time to register what’s happening. Tesla delivers race-car acceleration with the sensory feedback of a golf cart. You’re at dangerous speeds before you’ve processed that you’re accelerating.
• Touchscreen dependency. Tesla moved virtually all controls to a center screen, requiring drivers to take their eyes off the road for basic functions. The NHTSA has expressed “significant concerns about driver distraction” regarding Tesla’s interface design.
• Suspension and handling compromises. Teslas fail German TÜV safety inspections more than any other vehicle, largely due to suspension and brake issues. A speed bump shouldn’t be a death sentence.
• Marketing speed as identity. “Ludicrous Mode.” “Plaid Mode.” “Insane Mode.” Tesla doesn’t sell transportation; it sells the fantasy that public roads are racetracks and that the car will save you from your own poor judgment.

Essentially, Tesla’s grossly misleading portrayal of its safety, combined with gaming lab tests, continues to exacerbate the risks for those most vulnerable to its many design and engineering flaws. Tesla is also clearly the least reliable brand in the used car market.

Update

The Tesla driver is being charged with homicide.

A 16-year old driver faces several charges, including vehicular homicide, after a crash that killed a fellow 16-year-old in Powell. The driver has been charged with aggravated vehicular homicide, aggravated vehicular assault and reckless operation.

This is reminiscent of the recent tragedy and Tesla trial in New Zealand.

The alleged killer literally admitted his Tesla had made him into a worse driver, a deadly menace not only to himself but anyone around. […] Perhaps a simple empathy test should be required before anyone can turn on the power to these loitering munitions called cars? Don’t know how to safely point the barrel of a loaded rocket launcher? No launch for you.

The Tesla Deaths database now documents 772 fatalities. The company’s response to this body count has been to lie about the future, cooking nonsense about robotaxis.

More teenagers have been killed by “brutal” Tesla.

The collision occurred just before 8 p.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Vista Del Mar and Imperial Highway, overlooking Dockweiler State Beach in L.A.’s Playa del Rey neighborhood.

The victims were confirmed as two teenage boys who attended a school in the Inglewood Unified School District.

Video from the scene captured by Sky5 shows a massive response by emergency crews; another angle shows a mangled white Tesla near another blue vehicle damaged beyond recognition.

LAFD initially reported one was killed and two had to be extricated.

Firefighters extricated two patients, and transported a total of four patients (3 critical & 1 in fair condition) to local hospitals (ages/genders: 18M, 16M, 18F, 30F). The deceased (unknown age/gender) remains inside one of the wrecked vehicles

The teen driver of the car Tesla crashed into was killed instantly, and was expected to graduate high school the next day.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified David Ceja, 17, who was pronounced deceased at the scene, and Hector Ceja Jr., 15, who died at a local hospital from his injuries.

The two were brothers. Police are investigating and say it’s unclear why the cars crashed head-on.

The clever details in this image from Japan alone are worth talking about. A California license plate, a rubber dummy in a “Police” miniskirt holding a big pink “wand” next to a “Peace” cruiser… it’s all kind of weird and hilarious and yet probably still very effective in reducing threats to the public from high-speed cars.

It’s hard to believe but the last time I wrote about this sort of thing was fourteen years ago: “Drivers Slow for Decoy Police Women (in Skirts)”

Authorities say that life-sized cardboards of female police officers in miniskirts placed alongside roads have managed to slow down speeding drivers…

We’ve come a long way from cardboard. We haven’t come a long way from sensuality and sex as a traffic control device. What a time to be alive.

The Japanese man also deployed well-dressed dummy male police officers sitting next to a giant fake speed camera.

Someone should run the numbers on the physics involved in driving a Tesla at high speed to push a parked pickup 30 feet.

…Tesla Model X struck a Chevrolet Silverado that was parked along Middle Creek Parkway, near Voyager Parkway on the far north side of Colorado Springs. Police found an unconscious occupant on the passenger side of the Tesla. The Tesla collided with the parked Silverado at a speed high enough to move the truck about 30 feet, police said. “The unconscious occupant was determined to be a passenger in the car and was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries,” police said in an online blotter entry.

Several incidents like this have been reported recently, as Tesla for some reason continue to be unable to avoid crashing at full speed into cars around them.

Here’s a case from just a couple days ago that brought homicide charges for the Tesla owner.

Witnesses reported that a Tesla had disregarded the southbound red light on Central Avenue North at Smith Street and collided with a gray Prius in the intersection, then collided with a red Prius that was leaving a restaurant parking lot, according to police. They reported that the red Prius was struck so hard it was pushed into a nearby wall.