The vehicle that rolled down a driveway and killed Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was being recalled because the gear shifters have confused drivers, government records show.
Yelchin, 27, a rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the rebooted series, died on Sunday after his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee pinned him against a mailbox pillar and security fence at his home, Los Angeles police said.
The 2015 model-year Grand Cherokees were part of a global recall of 1.1 million vehicles announced by 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 park.
Fiat Chrysler expected to send recall notification letters to owners on May 16, according to a memo to dealers, but it is not known whether Yelchin received or saw his letter. The company was working on a fix and expected to have a final remedy in October or later, the letter said.
Investigators were looking into the position of Yelchin’s gear shift at the time of the accident, Officer Jane Kim said. The actor had left the vehicle momentarily, but police did not say why he was behind it when it started rolling.
Fiat Chrysler, which makes Jeeps, said in a statement on Monday that it was investigating and it was premature to speculate on the cause of the crash. It offered sympathies to Yelchin’s friends and family.
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 US, 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 will not shut off the engine if not in park, increasing the risk of the vehicles rolling away after drivers have left the car.
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 after he failed to show up for an audition early on Sunday.
Director JJ Abrams, who cast Yelchin in the third film in the franchise, Star Trek Beyond, wrote in a statement that he was “brilliant … kind … funny as hell, and supremely talented”.
Jodie Foster, whose 2011 film The Beaver co-starred Yelchin, said: “What a rare and beautiful soul with his unstoppable passion for life.
“He was equal parts serious thinker and the most fun little brother you could ever dream of.”
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.
An only child, he was born in Russia. His parents were professional figure skaters who moved the family to the United States when Yelchin was a baby. He briefly flirted with skating lessons, too, before discovering that he was not 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. There was something about it that I just felt completely comfortable doing and happy doing,” Yelchin said in 2011 while promoting the romantic drama Like Crazy.
