Son's Motor Accident after car serviced

M

mercman

Guest
My son had his car serviced with a Main dealer on Wednesday last. I was away so my wife brought him to the garage to collect and pay the bill. On Friday morning whilst he was going to collect a friend and go to college the car lost control, veered off the road, down a drop of about 10 feet and straight into an Eircom Pole. The Airbags did NOT open. Car went up on fire but luckily my son was able to climb out and call the Gardai/ Very Luckily he was not injured but very shocked. I was still away and I phoned the Garda that was dealing with it who stated that 'he was confident that he was not speeding', but did say that the car should not have been left out of the Garage as the tyres were bald. Am thinking of having an Insurance assessor have a look at the car and if there are other faults am tempted to issue proceedings against the Garage. Anyone have any other ideas ??
 
best bet is to talk to your solictor as you will not get legal advice / should not take advice from an internet forum!

on the other hand, if a garage suspects that the car is not road worthy then then must inform the motorists, but if the motorists accepts that the car needs new tyres etc etc and still drive the car then it could be his responibility (SP).

i for one dont think that the bald tyres caused the crash!
because driving at standard speeds, bald tyres will not have much impact imo.
if the tyres were bald comming out of the garage, then the tyres were bald going into the garage, so your son must of knew the needed replacing, but did he ask for the tyres to be replaced?

considering the car was in for a service, you would hope that the dealer actually picked up on them.

strange that the airbags didnt deploy. i suppose it depends on the point and speed of impact.

but on a more serious note, im glad he got out ok, and wasnt hurt, but i would imagine the shock hit alot later after the accident.
 
Sorry to hear about the young lad's accident, glad he was OK.
mercman said:
... The Airbags did NOT open...
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Is this a concern? The steering-wheel air-bag is designed not deploy unless the initial impact is head-on, similarly other air-bags may / may not deploy depending on initial point of impact and speed.
mercman said:
... Am thinking of having an Insurance assessor have a look at the car ...
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You definitely need to have your own assessor look at it.
mercman said:
... the Garda that was dealing with it who stated that ... the car should not have been left out of the Garage as the tyres were bald...
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If the tyres were bald, the fault lies with your son, as he was the driver and in the Guard's opinion, the car was not roadworthy. IME, this is a rather strange stance for the Guard to take, to place himself in the middle of what could be a civil case, rather than prosecute the driver for driving a dangerously unroadworthy vehicle.
 
mathepac said:
If the tyres were bald, the fault lies with your son, as he was the driver and in the Guard's opinion, the car was not roadworthy. IME, this is a rather strange stance for the Guard to take, to place himself in the middle of what could be a civil case, rather than prosecute the driver for driving a dangerously unroadworthy vehicle.
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mathepac, thank you for your post. I agree entirely with your comments. However, the garage know me well, and the matter was left with them to do what they had to do. The accident was a head on with the pole but no airbag deployed. If the car required tyres they should have put them on. They did a heap more work that was not needed but were able to charge €500 for a service to a VW Golf.
 
kceire said:
if the tyres were bald comming out of the garage, then the tyres were bald going into the garage, so your son must of knew the needed replacing, but did he ask for the tyres to be replaced?

considering the car was in for a service, you would hope that the dealer actually picked up on them.
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Just checked with my wife and they told her that the tyres would not last until the next service. The fact is that the two front tyres are completely bald.
 
mercman said:
Just checked with my wife and they told her that the tyres would not last until the next service. The fact is that the two front tyres are completely bald.
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i think with that comment, they have passed the blame onto your wife/son. well not blame as such, but passed over the responibilty to change the tyres!

what did they do for 500 euro?
bad form on the garage if they were told to change them and didnt, but if they are completely bald, then they have been below the minimun depth of 0.6mm for some time before the service. why havent they been changed before then?

the bald tyres would not be the cause of the accident, i would still state that in my opinion. was it on a bad bend? accident black spot? bad conditioned road? excessive speed? lack of attention to driving?
 
When you say lost control, how did it? I'm no expert in this field but I have a few friends who own garages and they tell me that if a car is not road worthy the client must be informed and to avoid a claim they must get the client to sign a disclaimer to be allowed take the car off the premises.

I also find it odd that this gaurd took this stance.
 
First off (& most importantly), I'm glad your son is OK.

Many moons ago, I left a new Escort in for it's first service, there was only 8000 on the clock. When I collected it, they charged me a whopping £ 395. I had to sit down....I was expecting £100. They said they had to change all my bald tyres & I must be very heavy on my tyre. I asked to see them as I didn't (and still don't) have a tendancy to brake hard....but they were no where to be found.
He INISTED that he had a legal obligation to change bald tyres as he could be held responsible for any accident that might occur. Now, I'm not saying this is legally the case but it is definately worth following up on. The insurance company should be able to give you more info. The fact you left the car in saying "do whatever needs to be done" should mean you leave the garage with everything sorted (albeit at a price!!)
 
Glad the young fella is ok first and foremost.

Assuming it was dodgy worn out tyres that caused the crash, I'd taken it as a cheap lesson tbh. Driving any motor vehicle is a big responsibilty. It's up to the driver to ensure it's roadworthy.
 
Don't put too much faith in what the Garda told you. I was in an accident with a truck a few years ago and the Garda was clear that the truck driver was at fault but the insurance company still ruled in his favour!
 
I have to say I can't see you getting anywhere if you initiate proceedings against the garage. It's not their responsibility to ensure a car is roadworthy, it's the driver's!

If the tyres were bald it's down to your son to be aware of this and rectify it.

You could claim that the garage had a duty of care to inform your son of the condition of the tyres but it sounds as thought they did this. Whether the seriousness of the condition of the tyres was understood by your son or your wife is irrelevant.

Ultimately, the condition of a car is down to the driver.

Good lesson for the lad in personal responsibility IMHO.
 
PetrolHead said:
Ultimately, the condition of a car is down to the driver.
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Petrolhead agree entirely. However, if you take a Garda opinion the garage are acting in a very irresponsible manner by allowing the car to be driven away in that condition, especially when they didn't even ask if the tyres could be changed. To state that the tyres 'won't last until the next service' is careless from the dealer. Frankly I am not that interested in 'Ambulance chasing', but the next person might not be as easy going. Main thing is that he wasn't injured.
 
I really don't think you'll get anywhere with the claim against the garage tbh
But if the tyres were that bad they should have informed your son.
Last time I got my car serviced two tyres needed to be changed, I was informed of it and it was written on my invoice so the garage covered themselves.

and on the airbag issue it didn't go off cause it didn't need to.
Your son was fine without it going off.
A lot of testing goes into airbags to ensure they deploy only when needed.
If it went off when not needed it may cause injuiry instead of preventing it.
 
As statistics will tell you that young males are more likely to have accidents than any other group. I have told porkies of sheep crossing and so forth to cover that actual truth but in saying that most of us have had an odd accident or a close call and looking back you knew it could have been avoided with more care. Tyres are a touchy subject. The garage obviously covered themselves by telling you they will not make it to the next service and the general mood in garages people do not want to spend any more than they have to. In VW's and many cars the airbag sensors and computer will evaluate the impact and if needed wil deploy airbags or not. A head on with a lamp pst depending on the speed may not do it as the impact bar and other components will crush softly absorbing the impact. I have changed front ends of golfs that have rear ended cars and have done serious damage to the car in front but very little to the golf. Good solid car as all germans cars. I honeslty think you will get nowhere but solicitor will advise you As for the Gardai the likelyhood of that particular Gardai attending the accident specialises in CSI of car crashes is more than likely NIL.
 
My mate skidded down his driveway in ice and tore the side of his car off the gate. The first thing the assesor checked on the car was the tread depth. When asked why he replied that it was "to throw out the case" if the tyres were below 1.6mm tread depth.

In Mercman's case, things are a little more complicated and i wish him and his son the best of luck in this case.

ollie
 
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