{"id":346038,"date":"2026-06-22T20:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346038\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T20:13:13","slug":"houston-law-firm-says-it-plans-to-sue-tesla-over-a-fatal-crash-involving-a-car-reportedly-on-autopilot-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/346038\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston law firm says it plans to sue Tesla over a fatal crash involving a car reportedly on autopilot \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Provided\/Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office<\/p>\n

A Tesla Model 3 crashed through the front of a Katy home on June 19, 2026, killing a 76-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

The family of a woman who died after a Tesla crashed into her Houston-area home plans to sue the electric car company as well as the driver \u2014 who reportedly told authorities the vehicle was in autopilot mode \u2014 according to a spokesperson for the law firm hired by the family. <\/p>\n

A lawsuit had not been filed as of Monday afternoon, but a spokesperson for Houston-based Zehl & Associates said its attorneys were attempting to have it filed by Tuesday. The firm announced Monday that it was enlisted by the family of Martha Avila, 76, who died after the Tesla crashed into her Katy home on Friday night. <\/p>\n

The crash occurred in the 21300 block of Rose Hollow Lane, according to a social media post by the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office. The driver told authorities he was using Tesla’s autopilot mode at the time of the crash, according to the constable’s office. <\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Tesla, the Austin-based company founded by technology mogul Elon Musk, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the crash. <\/p>\n

RELATED: Tesla\u2019s Robotaxi rides into Houston<\/a><\/p>\n

Avila was injured in the crash and flown to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office, in a news release<\/a> about the crash involving a Tesla Model 3, said the driver \u201cstated he was operating with an automated driving assistance system engaged at the time of the crash.” The man \u201cfailed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway, and struck the residence,\u201d according to the sheriff\u2019s office, who also said the man showed \u201cno signs of intoxication\u201d and was cooperative with responding authorities.<\/p>\n

The man is not being named by Houston Public Media because he had not been charged with any crimes related to the crash as of Monday, according to online court and jail records. The man also was taken to a hospital after the crash, authorities said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the sheriff\u2019s office said evidence gathered during an ongoing investigation into the crash \u201cwill be presented to the Harris County District Attorney\u2019s Office to determine whether charges are appropriate.\u201d <\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page<\/a> set up for Avila\u2019s family had raised more than $27,000 as of Monday. According to the account, Avila was at a relative\u2019s home at the time of the crash, and the home has since become “uninhabitable” due to the damage and ongoing investigation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Provided\/Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office A Tesla Model 3 crashed through the front of a Katy home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2441,520,405,56,58,58555,57,6958,66,223,10019,3621,483,123426],"class_list":["post-346038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-court","tag-fatal-crash","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-law-firm","tag-houston-news","tag-katy","tag-local","tag-news","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-technology","tag-tesla","tag-tesla-car-crash"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}