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Car That Crushed Anton Yelchin To Death Was Under Recall For Roll-Away Problems
Anton Yelchin at the 37th Deauville American Film Festival. (Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images)
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The car that crushed actor Anton Yelchin to death was in need of a fix that led to the recall of over a million cars.The 27-year-old actor was found dead early Sunday morning at his Studio City home, pinned by his car against a brick gatepost. LAPD officials told CBS News that the car that killed Yelchin was a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was subject to a Fiat Chrysler voluntary recall of 1.1 million cars over a shifter that led people to mistakenly believe their car was in park. TMZ reports that Yelchin's car never got the fix.
Yelchin's car was in neutral and still running when his body was discovered, and the coroner's office has officially ruled his death an accident.
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2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee (via Jeep)
In April, Fiat Chrysler's recall covered 2012-2014 Dodge Chargers, 2012-2014 Chrysler 300s and 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees. Jalopnik explains that the electronic shifter did not give the driver enough feedback, causing them to mistakenly believe the car was in park and leading to several roll-away incidents. At least 41 people have been injured in such cases.
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Photos from Yelchin's Studio City home show that the gate on his driveway was struck with enough impact that the metal had been bent.
The bent metal gate on the Studio City driveway where actor Anton Yelchin was killed https://t.co/crHM79GcNZ pic.twitter.com/997UvmOdwN
— Matt Hamilton (@MattHjourno) June 19, 2016
Reuters is now reporting that Fiat Chrysler will conduct a "thorough investigation" of the actor's death.
Yelchin was best known as Chekov in the most recent Star Trek films, with Star Trek Beyond slated for release next month.
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