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.
I went to school with Ethan. We had class together. He’s gone now because roads aren’t perfectly smooth like a race track?
Everyone wants the driver to hold all the world on his shoulders and yeah, he messed up bad. But why does a car even put everything on him all at once? Why is Tesla offering “Insane Mode” like suicide is a video game with more than one life? They know teenagers are going to die. They know what’s going to happen. They just don’t care.
And now Ethan’s dead from Tesla design and the driver’s getting charged with homicide and Tesla gets to just keep selling death. How is that okay?
I’m tired of people acting like death after death is always one kid making a bad choice. It’s not. This keeps happening. Look it up.
^^^ I hope people take this seriously. It’s real either way. It reads like someone who lost a classmate and is trying to make sense of it, stripping away the usual deflections to ask the questions adults won’t. This is exactly the kind of clear thinking about holding systems accountable, not just individuals, that might actually prevent the next one.