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Family sues SpaceX after crash kills man near South Texas launch site

2 years 10 months 3 weeks ago Wednesday, May 05 2021 May 5, 2021 May 05, 2021 10:58 PM May 05, 2021 in News - Local

On Wednesday, SpaceX successfully launched their SN15 Starship from the South Texas launch site.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called the starship landing nominal, as congratulations poured in for the team following a successful launch and landing.

Wednesday test flight was the third launch attempt for this particular Starship; the company hopes this model will take humans to Mars one day.

While SpaceX has its share of supporters, it also has critics; one of them is suing the company over safety concerns on the road, not in the air.

Though the sight of a rocket launching may bring excitement for hundreds of people locally and worldwide, six months before the first Starship launch, a tragic accident left one man dead.

Carlos Venegas and his family left Boca Chica Beach one early June morning after rising water tides cut their camping trip short.

What should have been a simple drive home ended with the family smashing into the back of a delivery truck in front of the SpaceX build site.

Now, Venegas’ wife is suing the space exploration company for $20M.

According to federal court filings, attorneys for the Venegas family claim SpaceX failed to maintain safe access points to its facility, specifically failing to install lights on the dark highway by the build and launch facilities to and from the beach.

In the filings, the SpaceX legal team denied responsibility for the accident, saying the company can show that any damages from the accident were caused by the negligence of Venegas, stating that he failed to use ordinary care and caution.

Neither of the parties involved responded to a request for comment.

A pre-trial conference for the case is set for July 15 at the federal courthouse in Brownsville.

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