Max Dryerman is suing Tesla after a crash killed his parents, David and Michele, both 54, and his 17-year-old sister, Brooke. As reported by Reuters and other outlets, the federal lawsuit filed on June 23 in Camden says a 2024 Model S equipped with Autopilot and Full Self Driving technology suddenly veered off the Garden State Parkway on September 14, 2024.
The lawsuit says David was driving home from a concert in Woodbridge Township when the car sped up without warning, didn’t brake for a concrete bridge support, and slammed into it, despite cameras showing the obstacle ahead. “Despite the vehicle camera system [detecting] an approaching stationary obstacle,” the complaint reads, “the vehicle continued—without braking or reduction in acceleration or engine torque—into the stationary obstacle.” Everyone was buckled up. All three died from their injuries.
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Max, a Drexel engineering student and fraternity president, wasn’t in the car. The suit accuses Tesla of marketing Autopilot as “better than a human driver” (a quote from Elon Musk in 2016), and failing to warn drivers that the system isn’t fully autonomous and can’t handle every road hazard.
The family is seeking wrongful death, product liability, and punitive damages, saying Tesla “acted in conscious disregard” of its system’s limits.
The suit goes deep—28 pages alleging Tesla’s design is “defective and unreasonably dangerous,” that it can drift lanes and won’t brake on its own. The Garden State crash site—near Milepost 131.1 in Woodbridge—had a sign, guardrail, and bridge support.
The Tesla didn’t slow or steer away. Drivers count on ADAS (Advanced Driver‑Assistance Systems), the suit says, sometimes expecting near‑autonomous safety, wrongly. Tesla, under pressure from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, recalled over two million cars in December 2023 to improve Autopilot safeguards—but Max’s filing claims that wasn’t enough.
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Tesla hasn’t commented publicly yet. The case—Dryerman et al. v. Tesla Inc. (No. 25‑11997)—is in U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, and asks for a jury to hear how a family night out turned into tragedy. The suit adds to ongoing scrutiny over Tesla’s self‑driving tech, which has been tied to several fatal crashes and federal investigations.
Brooke, a Pascack Hills High senior, shared pics from a music festival hours before the crash. For Max—studying engineering and now pursuing justice—this isn’t just legal; it’s personal.
This story is a heartbreaking reminder that tech touted as lifesaving can still fail. And when it does, families pay the price.