Eyewitness recounts painful final moments of elderly man who died in freak car wash accident
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: The horrifying last moments of an elderly man who lost his life in 2019 during a car wash session have been revealed. International oil company Chevron has reportedly been held responsible for the death of a 73-year-old Mulgrave man, whose identity is not released yet.
On Monday, April 17, a hearing was held at Melbourne Magistrates' Court over the tragedy that saw lawyers representing Chevron, the operator of the car wash, present in court after the multinational energy corporation was slapped with four negligence charges by WorkSafe Victoria. The hearing also saw an eyewitness named Pietrina Di Noto, who was at the scene when the elderly person died.
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‘It was obviously dangerous’
Noto told the court that the man died trying to enter his car after the wash cycle began to work, as reported by the Daily Mail. At the time, his vehicle door also got trapped by a gantry. The person suffered grievous injuries, resulting in his death three days after the incident in November 2019. The woman said she was behind the man when she found him getting out of his vehicle to re-enter the access code.
Noto shared, “He saw the machine move and started to run. I thought ‘Oh no, please get into the back seat.’ It would have been better if he'd just walked out. It was clear to me.” She also added, “It was obviously dangerous to get in the front. I was shocked.”
Chevron could have eliminated the risk
WorkSafe Victoria has reportedly pressed four breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act against the car wash facility. One of the four accusations suggests Chevron did not take basic measures to avoid risks. The car wash should have placed an instruction board, telling drivers not to leave their cars while the wash was happening. The facility could have also installed anti-collision bars or some other machine that would sense a clash between wash machines and hindrances during the washing process.
Besides, the gantry legs, which were installed with metal brackets, left very less area for vehicles, people, and other items in the wash area to adjust. WorkSafe Victoria claimed that the wash place should have uninstalled those brackets. In addition, Chevron allegedly had a hazardous operating system in place, which granted vehicle owners the pass to enter the wash region and leave the car as they enter the code before cleaning begins.
The court documents added, “It was reasonably practicable for Chevron to eliminate or reduce the risk by installing boom gates which would grant access to the wash bay only after a valid access code was entered.”
The incident happened a year after a man died after getting stuck between the machines and his vehicle during a car wash session in California. The deceased was identified as Rene Tactay Jaime, 56, of Valley Center, who took his Scion xB hatchback into an automated car wash named Pearl Car Wash on East Valley Parkway, where he got severely injured. He was admitted to Palomar Medical Center but could not be saved.