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Wednesday 26 February 2014

Lightbulb moment goes horribly wrong for car owner

It should have been a swift, run-of-the-mill task for the garage - changing a £40 lightbulb on a Vauxhall Insignia.

Instead, Ben Langley's pride and joy ended up mangled when a mechanic at the dealership drove it while the bonnet was up – and straight into a Vauxhall Zafira that was on a ramp.

The raised bonnet ended up folding back, snapping off and denting the Insignia's roof, as well as smashing its windscreen.

"It was like something you see in a demolition derby." Mr Langley, of Wawne, near Hull, said in a report about the accident at Evans Halshaw in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
 
The firm said it would repair the damage or give the project manager £4,000 for the vehicle, but the 38-year-old isn't satisfied.

"It's incompetence. I want a new car," he said.

The father-of-two, who had been outside the workshop, heard a massive bang and rushed to see what had happened.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I could see my car and there was a car on top of it. The mechanic had driven it across the workshop with the bonnet up."


The fire and rescue service extricated the Zafira.

A dealership spokesman said: "I can confirm Mr Langley's vehicle was involved in a minor collision during a routine repair in the workshop. Nobody was injured. We have apologised to Mr Langley and accepted our responsibility.

"We have given him the use of an Astra while we agree a proper remedy to this situation. We are sympathetic to Mr Langley and continue to engage with him with a view to finding a mutually agreeable and reasonable solution."

1 comment:

  1. You bring up a good point about the assistant. I actually thought the car owner had to be there in person. But maybe not. Even now, I’m not even sure. But I think that I will ask my assistant to go for the followup visit to the DMV. That’s a good idea.

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