Imagine you sprint to a burning Tesla Cybertruck, your friends trapped inside. But when you try to open the door, nothing happens. Without power, the door handles don’t work. And your friends burn to death in front of your eyes. This isn’t some made-up nightmare. This is a real-life ordeal Matt Riordan shared in the CHP’s most recent report on November’s deadly Tesla Cybertruck crash.

The flames crept higher. Smoke poured into the night sky. The Cybertruck was wedged between a tree and a wall, crumpled from the impact. Inside, two passengers were alive—but trapped. Driver Soren Dixon had just left a house party in his new truck, but crashed before leaving the neighborhood. Matt Riordan watched it all go down, and raced to save the driver and three passengers.

Riordan had seconds to save his friends. He rushed to the front passenger door. The first thing he did? “Slid my fingers into the crack between the door and the inside of the car.” Then he tried desperately to open it, “I pulled for a few seconds but nothing budged at all.”

Next, he hit the electronic door button. Nothing. The truck had lost power.

Trapped inside a crashed, burning Cybertruck

Desperate now, Riordan punched the window of the crashed Cybertruck, again and again, but it refused to break. He grabbed a large tree branch—“4-5 ft long and 1/3 foot in diameter”—and swung with everything he had. He clubbed the window once. Twice. Ten times.

“It took 10-15 hits of the window to crack completely and the top right corner to pop out of its frame.” Finally, the glass shattered. But the truck was engulfed in flame, the survivors burning in the heat, suffocated by the smoke.

Riordan yanked Jordan Miller through the broken window. He was barely conscious, his body limp. Riordan dragged him away from the fire, then turned back to the Cybertruck crash.

Krysta Tsukahara (19) was trying to climb through the same window. “Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head from the back. I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me but she retreated because of the fire.”

Riordan knew he had mere moments. He ran to the back of the Cybertruck and pounded on the rear doors. They wouldn’t budge. He “screamed” for the others to get out, but they were still stuck inside.

He grabbed his stick again and swung at the back window. By the time it shattered, the fire had taken over. Jack Nelson (20), and Soren Dixon (19), died alongside Krysta–trapped in the burning truck.

Cybertruck crash report reveals deadly design flaw

The latest CHP report confirms what happened next. “It was at this point that the first two squad cars arrived at the scene,” Riordan said. The officers held him back from the burning Cybertruck crash scene. But it was already too late.

Tesla’s powered door handles failed when the crashed Cybertruck lost power. Experts have warned about this design flaw for years. Unlike traditional mechanical latches, Tesla’s door handles are flush with the body panels and rely on electricity to extend. If power is cut, they become impossible to open from the outside.

Adam Cook, a car safety engineer, said Tesla’s emergency exits are poorly designed. Rear passengers must remove door paneling to access manual releases.

Tesla’s Cybertruck is bulletproof. But is it survivable?

The Cybertruck crash killed two young passengers and the driver—possibly because they couldn’t escape. Tesla advertises the truck as tough, but what good is armor if you can’t get out? The latest CHP report makes it clear: Tesla’s door design needs to change. Because no car should trap people inside while they burn.