My Prius Prime car accident in Car Wash - video

I don’t know if this can help you, but thanks you video you can clearly see not reverse lights, mean the driver of the ram didn’t reverse it so it most be a problem with the car wash rail that failed to hold the bigger vehicle secure.

 

I agree. It's interesting that the truck's tail lights turn off a moment before the thing pushing it loses grip on the wheel. I wonder if the driver accidentally put it in park? Do these trucks have a park button like our cars? The reverse lights don't go on at all, so if it's a traditional automatic transmission where you have to shift past reverse to get to park, then they didn't put it in park.

Hopefully the carwash will pay for the damage unless the other driver is somehow at fault.

 

It looks like those trucks use a knob for a gear shifter. You do have to pass reverse to get to park, but maybe turning it too quickly would put it in park without flashing the reverse lights.

Or maybe the driver hit the start button, turning the truck off, which in the Prius would throw it into park. But without foot on the brake it shouldn't turn off or go into park.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence and the auto headlights decided to turn off at the same moment.

 

Sorry to hear the mishap. The photos of the damage would help, but if it is just grill sub assembly, the cost of repair should be under your $1000 deductible. If any sensors and/or other components are involved, it could get expensive. I am curious as to how accident like this can be handled. Car wash I have used clearly states at the entrance "We are NOT responsible for ANY car damages". Keep us posted how it is handled if you make claim to the car wash place.

 

Walking the dog last night, my wife and I stopped to look at this Mercedes coupe, 2 seater. I would guess circa 1980? It looked to have the independent, hydraulically-mounted bumpers that WERE bumpers. Sorry for ranting, but cripes I wonder if the industry will every wake up.

 

In the case of Ram pickup truck backing up, even a real "bumper" would not have helped damages. Just too much hight differences.

 

I watched it again, and it does look like the truck is rolling backwards. Maybe the carwash track has a backwards slope there, so a vehicle that's not being pulled along would roll backwards? That would be surprising since they are usually very flat.

 

The point is no if the truck is coming in reverse because that’s obvious, the point is:
Is the driver fault?
Or
Is the car wash fault?

 

If the driver turned the wheels that could cause the truck to bind in the track, and the thing pushing it could skip past the rear wheel. There's no way to tell if that happened, but it's another thing that could make the driver at fault.

 

Yeah, same here about signage on a car wash. It basically means you go thru the tunnel of a car wash at your own risk. That is one reason I have stopped using automatic car wash. I now do only hand wash when I can, meaning I can't wash during winter months when it's too cold. I really wonder how that type of notice will hold in the court of law if someone does make a claim for the negligence of the car wash operation.

As for the damages caused, if the pictured areas are all damages, then it is definitely an easy swap of the grill sub-assembly parts and maybe some minor touch-up. If all the insurance claims fail, it is a DIYable job. On my 2017 PRIME, I had a crack on the clear acrylic part. Must have happened from a stone flying into it on the road. I thought about fixing it but never got to it before trading in the car. On my current 2020 PRIME, I am now thinking of painting the clear acrylic part with Plasti-dip to protect somewhat before any damage happens. That part is certainly not for strength. It is literally a glass jaw.

 

So you have an inexperienced driver ahead of you.

I'm not sure exactly what happened but it looks to me like the driver had his brakes on, then took them off.

In any case, good you have the video. With the brake lights on, I think it clearly shows negligence of the driver ahead of you.
In every drive-thru car wash I have used, it's Neutral, hands off wheel, no brakes.

Yeah, every car wash has disclaimers divorcing them from damage liability. But I would think if the driver ahead of you was negligent then they and the insurance covering that vehicle would be responsible, especially if you can prove negligence and I think your video clearly demonstrates that.
Disclaimer I'm not a Lawyer.

Good Luck.

 

If you watch the video closely, you'll see brake tapping very early in the video and then again at the end. That's on the driver.

Sorry it happened yo you.

 

It looks like it's taiI lights before the truck stops. The 3rd brake light isn't on. But after the crash, the truck driver applies the brakes (maybe needed to shift gears or turn the vehicle back on).

I don't think the carwash I use has a disclaimer. I'm not sure what their policy is, but on Google reviews people have reported that the carwash paid for damage to their car.

If the carwash is at fault, I think you or your insurance could take them to court regardless of a disclaimer. In this case it's not clear the carwash did anything wrong. But paying for the damage would be the right thing for them to do if the truck driver isn't clearly at fault.

 

This is really odd. No back-up lights, so the truck wasn't shifted to reverse. No brake lights until after the crash.

I'd go after the company that leased the truck. Their employee was at the wheel. Or, is something wrong with the car wash's track? If so, their disclaimer means nothing. Or send a demand letter to all four, the lessor, the lessee, the driver, and the wash. Let them figure it out. Get estimates from a couple of body shops. Does the radar cruise control still work? That's an expensive item.

 

You are correct about the 3rd brake light not being on until the end.
I speculate the vehicle was NOT in neutral...maybe Park? Being a leased rental vehicle with the driver NOT familiar with it, I think that's very possible.

I think I would go after "company" that leased the truck. It's there driver that was negligent. Assuming there isn't anything mechanically wrong with the vehicle and it's just driver error.

Also, every single drive-thru car wash I have ever rode through had some disclaimer about not being responsible for damages.
Plus watching that video, it clearly seems the driver of the vehicle ahead IS doing something....I'm also assuming there was nothing wrong with the Car Wash.

That would relatively easy to ascertain. Did it shut down after this incident? Or did it keep running?