The SUV that rolled down a driveway and killed Anton Yelchin, the ‘Star Trek’ actor was being recalled because the gear shifters have confused drivers, causing the vehicles to roll away unexpectedly, government records show.
Yelchin, a rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the rebooted series, died Sunday after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him against a mailbox pillar and security fence at his home, LAPD said.
The 2015 model-year Grand Cherokees were part of a global recall of 1.1 million vehicles announced by automaker Fiat Chrysler in April, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration records show. The agency urged the recall because of complaints from drivers who had trouble telling if they had put the automatic transmissions in the park. If they were not in park and a driver left the vehicle, it could roll away.
Fiat Chrysler expected to send recall notification letters to owners on May 16, according to a memo to dealers, but it’s not known whether Yelchin received or saw his letter. The company is working on a fix and expects to have a software update ready in July or August.
Investigators were looking into the position of Yelchin’s gear shift at the time of the accident. The actor had gotten out of the vehicle momentarily, but police didn’t say why he was behind it when it started rolling.
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement that it was investigating and it was premature to speculate on the cause of the crash.
Yelchin’s death was the first that might be related to the recall, the traffic safety administration said, although several serious injuries have been reported. The agency said Monday it’s in contact with police about the cause of the crash, and it urged owners of the recalled vehicles to make sure they’re in park before exiting and to use the parking brake
As of April, the company had reports of 212 crashes, 41 injuries and 308 property damage claims potentially caused by the shifters, it said in documents filed with the government.
The recalled vehicles, including nearly 812, 000 in the U.S., have an electronic shift lever that toggles forward or backward to let the driver select the gear instead of moving along a track like a conventional shifter. A light shows which gear is selected, but to get from drive to park, drivers must push the lever forward three times.
The recalled vehicles sound a chime and issue a dashboard warning if the driver’s door is opened while they are not in park. But the push-button ignition won’t shut off the engine if not in the park, increasing the risk of the vehicles rolling away after drivers have gotten out. The Grand Cherokee gear shifters were changed in the 2016 model year so that it works like those in older cars.
Coroner’s officials ruled Yelchin’s death an accident after an autopsy. The results of any toxicology tests would not be known for months, coroner spokesman Ed Winter said.
Yelchin’s friends found him dead after he failed to show up for an audition early Sunday.
His death tragically cut short the promising career of an actor whom audiences were still getting to know and who had great artistic ambition. Star Trek Beyond, the third film in the series, comes out in July.
Director JJ Abrams, who cast Yelchin in the franchise, wrote in a statement that he was “brilliant … kind … funny as hell, and supremely talented.”
Yelchin leaves behind at least five unreleased film and television projects, including an animated Netflix series by Guillermo Del Toro, Trollhunters. Yelchin voices the show’s main character, Jim, who discovers warring trolls living beneath his hometown. He also starred in the Gabe Klinger romance Porto, which may be released in the fall, and had completed work on three other independent films.
Yelchin began acting as a child, taking small roles in independent films and various television shows, such as ER, ‘The Practice, and Curb Your Enthusiasm before receiving his breakout big-screen role opposite Anthony Hopkins in 2001’s Hearts in Atlantis.
Yelchin, an only child, was born in Russia. His parents, who were professional figure skaters, moved the family to the United States when Yelchin was a baby. He briefly flirted with skating lessons, too, before discovering that he wasn’t very skilled on the ice. That led him to acting class. “I loved the improvisation part of it the most because it was a lot like just playing around with stuff,” Yelchin told a foreign media agency in 2011. “There was something about it that I just felt completely comfortable doing and happy doing.”
