Glued-On Roof Crash Failure Sees US Couple Awarded $42 Million
A US couple badly injured in a car crash after their car was cheaply repaired by a body shop have been awarded $42 million in damages.
Before Matthew and Marcia Seebachan bought the 2010 Honda Fit (that’s a Jazz in the UK), the car’s roof had been repaired after sustaining damage from one hell of a hailstorm. But instead of welding the new roof back in place, as should have been done, the body shop glued it in.
Obviously, when hit head-on by a truck in late 2013, the roof joins failed, causing a chain reaction of further structural failures that ultimately caused massive, life-changing injuries. Matthew is now permanently in and out of medical care, while Marcia was the lucky one with injuries limited to broken bones, internal bleeding and bruises.
Honda stipulates that a replacement roof must be welded, not glued. John Eagle Collision Center took the cheaper option, and the company is claiming that the insurance company involved – State Farm – bullied its staff into gluing rather than welding to save money. State Farm has denied that, but the Seebachans are suing the firm for a single dollar, with the idea being not to win money, but to raise awareness, stoke negative PR and prevent this money-first approach from happening again.
The cold reality that few of us know exactly what’s happened to our cars before we bought them is one we tend to put to the backs of our minds, but this sort of bodge-job really does make you worry. If you have access to a four-post lift, now might be a good time to get underneath your car and just make absolutely sure it’s all healthy.
Source: TheDrive
Comments
Moral of the story: Glue is dangerous.
And lucky that the couple is safe. Hope they will pick their body shop wiser.
Didn’t Ferraris set them selfs on fire becouse of the glue
I thought the previous owner of the car choose that body shop
Thing is the repair happened before they bought the car, so they had no clue on how it was done.
1 sec lemme get a plasma cutter and a pritt stick
Puts glue to save 20$
Get’s a 42 Million $ Fine
Well played
Well, it’s not like if it was something new: ask to GM…
Man i hope that got them out of their…
Sticky situation
sorry…
Well, they should have used duct tape
Your comment reminded me of the car I use to have. Someone broke in through the sun roof, resulting in me having to put 2 full rolls of duct-tape over the large hole.
*Flex tape
I use metal glue.. It comes out of this pistol looking gun and it shines bright when it’s applied.. Usually i have to grind the metal glue because when it dries, it’s as hard as… metal..
Some people call them welding machines.. I call them car glue guns.
If i’m okay after all and get that paycheck
You can glue my roof as well (sorry,replied too soon xp)
Some glue on applications are just as strong as welded steel. but same phrase applies to the one we saw about wheel spacers. “Must be done properly”
Zip ties.
$42 mil? I’m going to buy a private jet and take a trip to Mr. Koenigsegg in Sweden and buy a Regera, One:1 and an Agera RS. Then come home and pave myself a race track. Then make a 40 car garage, then collect cars.
“Matthew is now permanantly in and out of medical care”
“permanantly”
I think that if you’d get life-changing injuries, so intense that you need medical care for the rest of your life, getting a jet would be the least of your priorities if you’d get $42M out of it. This happened in the USA: medical bills won’t pay themselves alone. Especially when you know that no insurance company probably wants to insure the poor guy.
That would be the dream. Unfortunately a large chunk of that 42 mill will end up going to your lawyer/s, then an even bigger chunk would go off to taxes. In the end, you’d be lucky to see 10 million of the pay out. Once you get it though, you’re going to have to save that to pay for medical expenses. At the end of it all, you’ll probably only be able to afford a brand new car, and pay off some of your debts.
That’s the problem with these big pay out lawsuits. People think the winners are going to be getting all of the money. Nope, between lawyers and taxes, they will be lucky if they get to keep a third of the pay out. If it’s one of those pay outs that only pay a few million. What ever is left is more than likely going to what ever medical bills insurance didn’t want to pay for.
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