Published: Nov. 21, 2024 at 6:14 PM MST |Updated: 4 hours ago PHOENIX (AZFamily) — On Your Side has done a series of reports on safety concerns with the electronic door latches on Teslas and some other new cars. Now a recent accident showed electronic door failure can have deadly consequences. On October 24, just after midnight, a Tesla Model Y with five people inside crashed into a guard rail on a Toronto street, bursting into flames. Witnesses rushed to the car, hoping to save the people inside, but there was one huge problem. The car’s electronic door latches wouldn’t open, so rescuers couldn’t get in -- and the victims couldn’t get out. One man managed to break a window with a metal bar and rescued one passenger, but the other four people in the car died in the fire. And it’s not the first time something like this has happened. Back in 2019, a doctor in South Florida crashed his Tesla Model S into a palm tree, and the electronic doors wouldn’t open. He was trapped inside and died. The autopsy showed he survived the crash but was killed by the fire and toxic smoke. Over the past few months, On Your Side has exposed problems with Tesla’s electronic door latches. For example, we spoke with a Tempe woman who was stuck in her car when the battery died. In another report, we heard from a Scottsdale woman whose toddler granddaughter was trapped inside a Tesla when the doors wouldn’t open. Firefighters had to use an ax to get her out. Electric door handles sound somewhat concerning, but On Your Side has discovered that Tesla is far from the only automaker switching to them. “So electronic door handles, both interior and exterior, are becoming far more common on modern cars,” said Keith Barry, a senior writer at Consumer Reports focusing on car technology and road safety. He tells On Your Side that every car they’ve tested with electronic door handles has also included a manual way to open the door in an emergency. But they may not be easy to find. “In some Tesla vehicles, you have to remove panels off the rear doors,” he said. “You have to remove the speaker panels from the Model X’s rear door in order to pull on an emergency release. That’s not intuitive.” Barry says if your car has electronic door latches, look up the owner’s manual now to figure out how to get out if they fail. “The key is that you don’t want to be trying to find out where this door handle is when you’re locked in the car in an emergency, because then you’re panicking,” he said. “The last thing you want to be doing is Googling ‘How do I open the door of my car?’” Barry suggests keeping a hammer in your car or some other tool designed to break glass in an emergency as an added safety measure. But that may not be as simple as it sounds. Many luxury cars now use laminated glass. “Laminated glass in general is a good thing,” Barry said. “It can keep occupants from getting ejected in the crash. It can make the inside of a car quieter, but it’s also harder to break than traditional tempered glass.” Here’s a tip if you need to break a window. Every piece of glass in your car says in the corner whether it’s tempered or laminated glass. The tempered glass window will be much easier to break.