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£1000+ damage done in a car wash
Ok it's been a very bad day.
Took my car to an automated unmanned car wash at a petrol station, drove forward til the arrow light went off and stop sign lit up. Shutter closed behind me. The car wash came forward and didn't clear the side of my car - it smashed into the front of the car taking off the bumper and crushing the wing. It didn't stop and started pushing my car backwards through the metal shutter buckling it and scraping the car paintwork. My passenger jumped out to find an emergency stop button, there were 2 large red buttons with no signage, neither worked. I jumped out and reached up to a mains shut off knob which thankfully stopped the mechanism. By this time my week old car was badly damaged. We then realised we were trapped in the car wash. Both shutters were down and the buttons to lift them didn't work. The chains to manually open them were totally rusted up and there was no emergency exit door or panic button. The only way out was a small gap in the shutter made by my car buckling it. I know it was dangerous now but I squeezed through and ran to the shop to get help. There weren't even any windows in the car wash to wave down help.
Police arrived and RAC came. Petrol station staff tool 15mins to open front shutter and move mechanism forward to free the car - they were totally clueless and obviously had no training in dealing with problems involving the car wash. The RAC made my car safe enough to drive home and their legal department contacted me to make a statement. I'm obviously very shaken along with my 2 passengers and 2 of us have had head aches and pain as our heads were snapped back by the force of it.
Well what now? My insurance are arranging for the car to be fixed but surely this car wash was dangerous, the fact that there was no clear emergency stop button or automatic shut off of the mechanism when it first impacted my car doesnt seem safe. It was petrifying to then find we were trapped with no emegency exit. I know I can't have positioned my car correctly but from where I was sitting it looked ok, I presumed the stop sign meant the car was in the right position and there was no way to rectify this anyway.
The police felt the car wash was unsafe and closed it down along with the second one at the garage. Do I have a leg to stand on legally? I will lose my no claims and excess, does anyone think the garage have any liability?
Sorry for the long post, this only happened a few hours ago and I'm still shaken up. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Took my car to an automated unmanned car wash at a petrol station, drove forward til the arrow light went off and stop sign lit up. Shutter closed behind me. The car wash came forward and didn't clear the side of my car - it smashed into the front of the car taking off the bumper and crushing the wing. It didn't stop and started pushing my car backwards through the metal shutter buckling it and scraping the car paintwork. My passenger jumped out to find an emergency stop button, there were 2 large red buttons with no signage, neither worked. I jumped out and reached up to a mains shut off knob which thankfully stopped the mechanism. By this time my week old car was badly damaged. We then realised we were trapped in the car wash. Both shutters were down and the buttons to lift them didn't work. The chains to manually open them were totally rusted up and there was no emergency exit door or panic button. The only way out was a small gap in the shutter made by my car buckling it. I know it was dangerous now but I squeezed through and ran to the shop to get help. There weren't even any windows in the car wash to wave down help.
Police arrived and RAC came. Petrol station staff tool 15mins to open front shutter and move mechanism forward to free the car - they were totally clueless and obviously had no training in dealing with problems involving the car wash. The RAC made my car safe enough to drive home and their legal department contacted me to make a statement. I'm obviously very shaken along with my 2 passengers and 2 of us have had head aches and pain as our heads were snapped back by the force of it.
Well what now? My insurance are arranging for the car to be fixed but surely this car wash was dangerous, the fact that there was no clear emergency stop button or automatic shut off of the mechanism when it first impacted my car doesnt seem safe. It was petrifying to then find we were trapped with no emegency exit. I know I can't have positioned my car correctly but from where I was sitting it looked ok, I presumed the stop sign meant the car was in the right position and there was no way to rectify this anyway.
The police felt the car wash was unsafe and closed it down along with the second one at the garage. Do I have a leg to stand on legally? I will lose my no claims and excess, does anyone think the garage have any liability?
Sorry for the long post, this only happened a few hours ago and I'm still shaken up. Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Comments
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I think the garage is liable, but the carwash must have been moving some to give you whiplash. (and it was a frontal impact, so your head would have gone forward, not backwards)0
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What made it worse was I was leaning forward on the steering wheel when it hit the front slamming the car back which then slammed the car into the shutter. As I was leaning forward I was jolted back suddenly and then forward again with the rear impact.0
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what sort of car wash was this, i have never ever seen one with shutters back and front. sounds odd to me.0
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i hink it was your fault“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw0 -
April 1st is NEXT Friday. Whiplash? Loving it.Pants0
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It was a car wash at a petrol station, the sort you drive up to and key in a code then drive forward. The front shutter was already closed and the back one shut after I'd driven in, I didn't realise this til the car was shunted back into it. If it had been open I'd have been able to just reverse straight out as soon as I saw the thing coming towards me. I guess the shutter closes to keep the water in but would have been far safer if it had been left open.
I haven't mentioned anything about whiplash have I?0 -
No, not at all but what are you implying by saying the following?I haven't mentioned anything about whiplash have I?2 of us have had head aches and pain as our heads were snapped back by the force of it
I was jolted back suddenly and then forward again:footie:
Regular savers earn 6% interest (HSBC, First Direct, M&S) Loans cost 2.9% per year (Nationwide) = FREE money. 0 -
My head did fly back into the headrest when the car was jolted back. I had no seatbelt on at that time as my car had it's engine off so was then thrown forward when the car hit the shutter. The impact was hard enough to jolt me and I've had a banging headache and jaw pain since.
Tbh I'm more interested in whether this car wash was safe and whether I can get my excess and no claims back.0 -
Any photos?0
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Yes but I hope you'll appreciate I can't show them til my insurance is all sorted, they say it'll probably go to court which I really hope it doesn't.
It's a shame really as it's difficult to describe the incident and the pictures show the damage done.0
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