Electric car maker Tesla was negligent for disabling a speed limiter but the 18-year-old driver of a 2018 Model S bore most of the blame for his death in a high-speed crash in May 2018, a jury found Monday.
The verdict capped a two-week trial over a lawsuit by the driver’s father, James Riley, blaming Tesla for the death of his son Barrett Riley. The crash and resulting battery fire on Seabreeze Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale also killed Edgar Monserratt Martinez, a fellow senior at private Pine Crest High School.
Both teens died at the scene of the crash. A back seat passenger was ejected from the vehicle and survived.
