Anton Yelchin

In this June 11, 2015 photo, Anton Yelchin arrives at a special screening of "Burying the Ex" held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles. Yelchin, a charismatic and rising actor best known for playing Chekov in the new "Star Trek" films, has died at the age of 27. He was killed in a fatal traffic collision early Sunday morning, June 19, 2016, his publicist confirmed. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland shifter

DETROIT- The parents of Anton Yelchin, a star of the rebooted "Star Trek" series who was accidentally crushed to death by his Jeep SUV in June, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, ZF North America and Autonation.

Yelchin's 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled down his driveway June 19 and pinned him against his brick mailbox. He was 27.

The vehicle was part of a FCA safety recall that in the U.S. includes more than 800,000 mid-size SUVs and full-size cars with transmission shifters now linked to 68 injuries and 266 crashes.

The affected vehicles are equipped with Monostable electronic, or e-shift, gearshift assemblies. The driver depresses a button on the shifter and moves it forward or backward into gear, and the shifter itself then swings back to a centered position.

The gear selected is shown on the dash display and is illuminated on the shifter. A chime sounds if a door is opened while the vehicle is not in park.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects said in February that testing "indicates that operation of the Monostable shifter is not intuitive and provides poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection."

FCA has stressed that part is not defective.

It has nonetheless been speeding up a recall campaign that the covers certain model-year 2012-2014 Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 sedans, and model-year 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs in the U.S.

The automaker has been sending software to dealers that makes the vehicle automatically go into park if the door is opened while the engine is still running.

At a press conference Tuesday in Los Angeles, an attorney for Yelchin's parents said they are seeking punitive damages because they believe FCA and ZF - the latter is the supplier of the shifter - knew the part was defective but failed to take action, CNN reports.

A separate, class-action lawsuit was filed in June by law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro on behalf of owners of vehicles affected by the recall.

If you want to check whether your vehicle could be affected a recall in general, you can plug your vehicle identification number into NHTSA's VIN lookup at vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/.