Van totalled in car wash

[andrew_j]

Load straps are dangerous . My dad simply ran one over after fell on highway and it bound up his rear axle/driveshaft at 65MPH locking rear wheels.

Fortunately no accident as he had to leave the truck in right most lane of highway where he jumped out, truck would not move.

A semi actually stopped behind partially pulled out with flashers and threw flares out to deflect traffic. No one got hurt .

It did no damage as he drove another 10 years after tow shop cut the strap out.

 

[Exhaustgases]

Our oldest son's van ('09 Kia Sedona) had an unrepairable flat tire. Given the age of the van and high price of the hard-to-find replacement tires (225/70-16, I think) he looked at used.

He found a set of four tires for sale, mounted on 6-hole Kia steel wheels. The tires appear to be in excellent shape with about 20K km on them. (His van runs steel wheels rather than alloys for both the 3-season and winter tires, so the steel wheels are not a downgrade.)

When the donor van was totalled, it was still running winter tires, thus the ready-to-go 3-season tires in storage.

So how did the donor van get totalled?

As the seller told my son, he (the seller) took the van to a drive-through car wash. The whole family was aboard.

When they got partway through, there was a series of loud thumping noises, followed quickly by smashing glass, water pouring in through the broken windows, and crying children, and bewildered parents.

The van emerged with passengers uninjured, though traumatized, and with much body damage and broken glass.

It turned out a load strap had come off a previous vehicle, and had gotten tied up in one of the rotating brushes. The steel buckle, whirling at high speed, made quite the weapon.

Our public insurer wrote the van off, and compensated the family fairly. Presumably they (the insurer) will go after the car wash owners, who will try to find the vehicle that dropped the load strap.

The family bought a newer Kia van. The newer vans use 5-hole wheels, and a different tire size, so the wheels for the old van wouldn't have fit.

I haven't been through a drive-through car was in many years, and this does nothing to change my mind.

I didn't understand this at all.
So there are or were 2 vans? Your sons and a donor van?
So the donor van had the tires your son needed?
Did your son get the needed tires etc?
My ex used car washes all the time.
I call them car scratches. If you don't care about the paint job then use them all you wish. I never ever have.

 

[Number_35]

I didn't understand this at all.
So there are or were 2 vans? Your sons and a donor van?
So the donor van had the tires your son needed?
Did your son get the needed tires etc?
My ex used car washes all the time.
I call them car scratches. If you don't care about the paint job then use them all you wish. I never ever have.

Son has a 2009 Sedona that needed two tires.

He bought a pair on steel rims from the owner of a same-gen Sedona that had been totalled in a car wash.

I installed them for him on Saturday. Given the good condition of the two he bought, and the cost of new replacements, he went back and bought the other two as well.

 

[eljefino]

The writers of the next Final Destination movie franchise are furiously taking notes!

 

[Number_35]

The writers of the next Final Destination movie franchise are furiously taking notes!

I had never heard of it (typical for me) and had to look it up. Sounds like a scary but intriguing premise!

I was reminded of a Twilight Zone comic book I had as a child; a rich man has a premonition that he'll die on a certain date. He charters an aircraft and has it fly directly north along the International Date Line, therefore being in neither date completely.

All is well until something out the port window catches his eye. He crosses a couple of steps over to that side of the aircraft, and is now completely in the foretold date.

The aircraft immediately suffers a major mechanical failure, and plunges into the Pacific, with all on board perishing.

Haunting stuff when you're 10 or 11.

 

[jeepman3071]

Glad I asked.
A car wash thread efficiently morphing into an insurance lesson.


Three cheers for their thoughtfulness but, don't they also refuse responsibility if their machine tears your wipers off?
It's the old, "at your own risk, clause".

Oh absolutely, and there is a sign stating that, but they also refuse certain vehicles. I'm sure they are more concerned about their equipment being damaged than with cars being damaged.