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Car wash crash
A person went to one of those car wash places in Michigan where you ride in the car as it is being washed and nobody told this person to put the car in neutral so the car remained in drive and launched forward into the car ahead of the person.
By the time the attendant ran along side of the car yelling at the driver to "put it in neutral you idiot!", the cars had already collided causing minor damage to both.
Would the car wash place be responsible for the repairs? If a police report is made, will the driver of the launched car get a ticket for not having the car under control on private property?
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Re: car wash crash
being that I live in michigan and had the same identical thing happen to me, I took them to court and due to the car wash is mechanically driven, they had to fix both vehicles!
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Re: car wash crash
I have yet to see an automatic carwash that did not have a sign directing the car diver to place the vehicle in neutral.
Was there such a sign? Was it open, obvious, and unobscured from the drivers view?
Because of the design of the drive chain, the driver must have attempted to actually drive the car forward and not accidentally roll into the car in front of them.
BTW: I have actually seen this at a car wash an aquaintence owns. To me it was hilarious. The guy that got hit was not so amused. The driver really had to try to get over the drive mechanism. (obviously not intentionally hitting the guy but definately a situation where common sense should have over ridden the idea of driving the car forward.)
As far as the ticket goes, No real idea but since it is on private property and not observed by the officer, I doubt it.
Does your friend have insurance on their car?
bluesman: did the courts actually make this call or did it end up being dropped and the car wash accepting responsibility?
Unless you could prove some defect in the operation of the device, I can see no reason the car wash would bear any responisbility barring the failure to direct you.