Anton Yelchin, the 27-year-old actor, who died in a freak accident Sunday morning, may have died concerning a flaw in his Jeep Grand Cherokee.
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According to police, Yelchin died from blunt force asphyxia when he got out of the vehicle and it rolled down his driveway and pinned him against a brick mailbox and a security fence.
In a statement Monday, Fiat Chrysler expressed condolences to Yelchin’s friends and family, but said it was premature to speculate on the cause of his crash.
UPDATE: A spokesperson from FCA told Reuters the company would conduct a “thorough investigation” of Yelchin’s accident.
According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall report dated April 22, some Jeep Grand Cherokees from 2014 and 2015 have a defect in that they do not have sufficient warning mechanisms to deter drivers from getting out of the vehicle after failing to put it in the PARK position.
Yelchin’s death comes a month before the release of “Star Trek Beyond”, in which the late actor played Chekov, the young Russian navigator of the starship, USS Enterprise.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urged the recall amid complaints that drivers had trouble telling if they had put the automatic transmissions in park. Fiat Chrysler said in April that it’s aware of 41 potentially related injuries.
Police said the 27-year-old rising star had momentarily exited his vehicle. Several had exited their vehicles without having engaged Park as intended, leading to rollaway events despite warning lights and sounds created to prevent this from happening. When it announced the voluntary recall, FCA said the shift lever’s problems were unusual enough that “unless due care is taken, drivers may draw erroneous conclusions about the status of their vehicles”.
Justin Timberlake is opening up about the death of his Alpha Dog co-star Anton Yelchin.
Los Angeles police are investigating Yelchin’s death. The new transmissions do not make it clear what gear the vehicle is in – so the driver may leave the auto in neutral while thinking it is in park.
Friends went to Yelchin’s Studio City, CA home early Sunday morning after he didn’t show up for a rehearsal.
The shifters in those vehicles are equipped with electronic shift levers that return to the same central position after a different gear is selected.
JJ Abrams, who directed two Star Trek films, paid tribute to Yelchin on Twitter by saying “Anton, You were brilliant”.
He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (then Leningrad) to figure skaters Irina and Viktor Yelchin.
Born in Leningrad, in the former Soviet Union, Yelchin’s family emigrated to the USA when he was six months old.
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Yelchin also starred in the films Like Crazy, Fright Night, Charlie Bartlett, Only Lovers Left Alive, and Hearts in Atlantis.
