Ever had this happen? How would you handle it? (Part I)

[GregF]

I have a Laser 4000. Got a call last night from a customer at the wash who said something must have broken while he was in the bay and it shattered two of his windows. Went down there immediately and he was still parked in the bay. He said that he heard a "pop" on the roof of his Chevy Trailblazer as if something had fallen on it as the arch was passing down the driver's side of his vehicle on the HP rinse cycle. Then he heard a "pop, pop" as it passed down the passenger side. When the wash was over, he got out to survey the damage and found that the back window on the passenger side had been shattered along with the fixed part of the "split window" in the rear passenger door. I checked the equipment and everything seemed to be fine. Had him pull out of the bay and still couldn't find any broken parts or anything. The ONLY thing that was suspicious was that there was a broken pint-sized whiskey bottle in the bay. One chunk of the bottle was laying against the "passenger-side" bay wall "in the middle of the bay," and a couple other chunks of it were laying up in the corner of the the exit of the bay, also on the passenger side. My attendant said he also found a 12-pack of broken beer bottles on the back side of the wash that morning.

My guess is that the bottle dropped out of the bridge as the arch passed down the driver's side of the vehicle, and then must have been falling off of the vehicle on the passenger side as the arch was passing down that side, and it got caught up in the spray and got smacked up against the two windows and shattered them. Has anybody else ever had anything like that happen?? We've got a docking dryer, and I've seen aluminum cans get blown out of the bed of a pick-up and lodge up in the bridge, but I can't imagine that a bottle would be light enough to get lifted up into the bridge. I CAN imagine that somebody went walking through the bay, or stepped into the bay as he was walking by, and stuck the bottle up into the bridge.

 

[GregF]

Part II...

I talked to the claims adjuster a little bit ago and he said that he COULD tell the customer "that he's sorry it happened and everything, but he'd have to deny the claim since there wasn't any indication of negligence on my part, and that it's unfortunate that some drunk stuck a bottle up in the equipment and that it fell out and damaged his vehicle while he was using our facility, and that he should just file the claim with his insurance company if he's got comprehensive coverage on his vehicle." BUT, he said, we also have "garage-keepers" coverage in our policy, and he's not sure why we even have that since we never get into a customer's car. Upon which I answered, "I'm not sure why we have that, either, but I was told that it was a mandatory coverage." So, he said that the customer's vehicle COULD be covered under the garage-keepers part of the policy, and that it would cost me the $250 deductible to have them go ahead and pay the claim from that coverage. After the adjuster double-checked with his supervisor, he told me that "it was up to me." They would go either way on it. So, I told him just to pay the claim under the garage-keepers coverage and charge us the $250. The customer definitely seemed to be on the up-and-up and I had no suspicion that he was trying to pull one over on us. Even though we weren't negligent, I sure wouldn't want a customer to have to pay for something like that that wasn't his fault either. I already felt bad enough about it that I'd asked him if he still felt comfortable using the wash, and he said yes, so I gave him $50 in tokenotes just for the inconvenience of it all.

So, has anybody else ever had anything remotely similar happen? Do you think it was the bottle that did the damage? Anybody NOT required to have garage-keepers coverage?

 

[pitzerwm]

I don't see how that could have happened as you described, especially 2 windows. I'd buy that someone walking by threw the bottle at the car while it was being washed but still 2 windows? If you watch "Cops" when they try to break a side window its almost impossible. I once had a drunk smash my windshield with a near full fifth of booze and it didn't do anything, thankfully for all concerned.

 

[Gabriel]

Stuff like this is enough to make a guy love cameras and sleep better at night. If you could just replay this scene--they are a must.

 

[MEP001]

Gator is right, a cheap DVR and a couple of cameras could have made the difference between negligence or not if you didn't have the extra "mandatory" insurance.

Bill, I once broke the door window out of my car with a bottle of Gatorade back when they were still made of glass. I barely tapped it on the top of the frameless window as I was getting in the car and it shattered.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

I don't think you can predict what will make a car window break. Back in my "little miller" days a girl in the back seat of my 69 Impala attempted to hurl a little miller bottle from the driver side back seat through the passenger side front window. The only problem with this was that the window was closed. The bottle ricocheted off the door glass and the inside of the windshield before coming to rest in my lap. The bottle and the windows remained unbroken, go figure. On a second note, I bought a new Dodge truck in '99. I have never been in an accident or as much as doing some doofus act to dent it, but have had three windshields put in it. It seems that I am some kind of flying debris magnet and my windshield breaks every time.

 

[mac]

I have to agree with Bill on this one. Once while at a wash a customer had locked himself out of his car, and asked for help. I jokingly offered him my trusty three pound mallet to open a rear window. He couldn't. These things are almost bulletproof anymore.

 

[bigleo48]

GregF,

DVR is an essential tool. Not only would it have given you the anwsers here...but you can also use it to monitor how your wash is performing.

We have 28 cameras at our wash rolling 24/7. It has helped me in so many ways I can't begin to tell you.

Big Leo

 

[BlendMoney]

Strange?

I definitely have to agree about getting some cameras. They are definitely a must have now a days.

I stopped by an express tunnel that was at a full stop with cars in line waiting and when I walked in the tunnel, the staff was trying to figure out how to get a car back on track that had veered left and took out a wheel blaster. After helping with the solution to the problem. The woman whos car was all scratched up on the side, was asking where she needed to send her repair bills and what were they going to do about this.

We went in the office and checked the tape and low and behold, it clearly showed her hitting her brakes in the tunnel which caused the chain to launch the car forward and left.

As a result, no compensation was given, and the owner knew she was negligent at that point.

On a side note, you mentioned a lot of alcoholic debris in your wash, even a small cam setup, but more importantly a few video surveillance signs could help that problem greatly. At least that has been my experience.

 

[GregF]

Well, from where the breakage was on the side of the vehicle, I don't think it could have come from a bottle being thrown in from the rear of the bay, and that also wouldn't account for the "pop" on top of the vehicle, and then the subsequent "pop, pop" on the side.

I completely agree with everyone on the DVR, but just haven't pulled the trigger on it, YET. I've got two washes that I need to outfit with new surveillance systems. Currently, I have 6 BW cameras at each of those locations, but both VCRs have shot craps and several of the cameras aren't working, either.

 

[Louise]

Shortly after I opened a customer was in an OLD van pulled into my automatic. After the wash ended he rushed to my door to say the machine has busted out his rear passenger side window. When I walked out to look at the van there was no glass in the van - it was all in the bay. The window was broken from the inside out.

He tried to get me to pay for a new window which would have cost more than the van was worth. He finally just went away.

 

[Greg Pack]

Side and rear glass is automobiles is tempered. It is very resistant to breakage from blunt objects. However, they are very susceptible to breakage from sharp objects. I don't really think a beer bottle would break one. I could envision something sharper, like a corner of the tip of a high pressure nozzle breaking one with relatively minimal force.

 

[troyberry]

I had the opportunity to witness a rear window popping out of a pick-up in the not so distant past. We could only account it to temperature change. We were testing a wash and had washed it once previous, then left it outside in about -10C weather for about 5 minutes. Then when it went back in for its second wash, the rear window shattered out of it after the presoak pass. Really weird.

 

[rph9168]

I once saw a windshield explode like that many years ago. The car had been out in the sun on a very hot day. When they brought it into the bay they tried to hose it down to cool it off. When the water hit the windshield it exploded. I always htought that it already had a crack in it before it happened to see it shatter like that.