Ever destroyed a car by accident? Read on....

Jeslek

Jeslek

Banned
OK this happened to my dad while we were in Malaysia. Working as a radar engineer, his job was to map underground utilities such as water pipes, electrical cables, and telecommunication lines since no public record existed. This job required a radar and a van they fixed up just for this purpose. While doing this kinda work, he would often spray little letters and marks on the road with spray paint. In fact, he had several cans of spray paint in the van.

Anyways, he was always arguing with the local Malays about neatness. Always put things back where you get them. Don't leave trash in the van, etc. So, one Saturday afternoon something happened.

He was in the basement parking lot of the company headquaters. He pulled up to the exit ramp to present his ID card to the person in the security booth. At this point there were only two people in the van. Anyways, while he pulled up he tried to change his seat. Unfortunately, the people didn't put the paint and his punctured one of them. He wasn't aware of this, and pushed the button to roll the window down...

The electricity ignited the paint. Now it gets kinda complicated. The passanger got out of the van quite easily, but my dad was trapped by the stupid booth. He managed to get out of the passanger door, but not before his pants melted and he suffered first and second degree burns on his arms and hands. The security officer's beard, mustache, and eyebrows were seared off.

Anyways, the sprinkler system on floors L1, L2, L3 and 1, 2, and 3 opened up. (1-3 are offices lol). My dad calmly walked to the elevator and stepped into his coworker's office saying "I made a bit of a mess...". There was chaos. People on floors 1-3 were working in their offices when the sprinklers popped out and doused everything!

In the end, my dad fully recovered with NO scars! Destroyed in this process was a:

$40,000 van
$250,000 radar
$100,000 signal detector
$5,000 notebook
$50,000 in miscellaneous stuff

:headbang: We are still laughing at it today. Don't get me wrong, we panicked when we saw him, but he healed up well. It was just painful the first 2 days... (he slept with his arms wrapped in gauze and bandages + waterproof covering in buckets of ice)

Got any exciting life stories to share?
 
Hm I won't even go into detail about the reports filed with the insurance company, rofl... I will try to get some photos scanned.
 
i'm trying to slowly destroy my car by a serious of accidents ;)

bloody pedestrians keep moving out the way though :rolleyes: :D
 
remind me NOT to loan my car to your dad & his drinkling buddies :D
 
Don't they just?


But I still have a hard time beliving that an electric window was ever able to ignite paint. Especially without the fumes being strong enough to smell. Or any of the rest of that story, for that matter.
 
Professur said:
Don't they just?


But I still have a hard time beliving that an electric window was ever able to ignite paint. Especially without the fumes being strong enough to smell. Or any of the rest of that story, for that matter.
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I have to you agree with you Prof. The story does seem a little strange. Especially if he was sitting on the paint can or something. It doesn't just blow up.
 
To this day I have never put a mark on a car.

Scratches, nicks, dents, and such in cars are a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

I recently sold my first car a 1989 Camry LE with 255,000km on it. At the time I sold it, it only had one mark in it, a small dent that didn't break the paint. My girlfriend always laughed at me because I would park in the other end of the parking lot all alone where nobody would smash my doors trying to get their fat ass out of their car. Considering the car was only 4 years younger than my self.

Now I drive my mothers 99' Protege daily. I can't stand the thing, it is covered in little dents and scratches. BLEH!


I miss my babe :(
It had a tiny bit of rust on the fender rims in this picture. It was taken before I sanded it down and painted it.

http://img152.exs.cx/img152/8780/pdrm0097medium8ws.jpg
 
I was sitting on a long, straight, flat stretch of road one bright sunny afternoon waiting to turn left. Had the turn signal on and everything, which is saying a lot for a Southerner. Some moron plowed right into the back of my car, a very bright green Ford Escort. Hit us hard enough to dislodge the driver seat from one bolt and smash the entire rear of the car up to the rear window. Sore neck for a day or three, but otherwise unhurt. The car was totalled.


Also, was sitting at a dead stop on a section of I-40 in downtown Nashville in a company car when I worked in mental health. Had a man with me who suffered from somatic delusions (he believed scorpions were eating his tongue among other delightful notions.) A tractor trailer rear ended the Nissan Sentra I was in and knocked us into the car ahead. Again, not a scratch on me, but the car was a mess. The guy with me, to my eternal befuddlement, never made a single physical complaint.


Moral: Whatever you do in a car, NEVER stop completely!
 
Professur said:
Don't they just?


But I still have a hard time beliving that an electric window was ever able to ignite paint. Especially without the fumes being strong enough to smell. Or any of the rest of that story, for that matter.
Click to expand...

I have to agree, that is the weakest atttempt of BS I've heard in a while.
 
Hmm, I would also have a hard time believing that the 12VDC motor would ignite the fumes, like Prof said, before he smelt them.

Many times in my youth I played with explosive aerosol cans (and worse). In my experience, it is not always easy as it sounds. I remember trying to explode a can of butane with a friend, by throwing GOOD SIZED rocks at it from a good distance away, and I believe we even shot some roman candles at it. No boom.

Write up to the "myth busters" maybe Jamie and Adam will try it out ;)
 
Straight Dope would probably mention that sprinklers are individual. They have little stop valves in them that melt with heat and turn on the flow. It's impossible for a fire in the basement to set off sprinklers on the third floor without the flames having spread to the third floor.
 
Ah yes, good point. Most of them do have a fusible link in each sprinkler.

If there was only one fusible link, and melting that one would flood the whole building, I am sure high school kids would have figured that out a long time ago.

Also, I am not sure what temperature they melt at, but it would take more than a can of spray paint on the ground to do it.

Why would someone spend their time typing that if it was not true?
 
Inkara1 said:
Straight Dope would probably mention that sprinklers are individual. They have little stop valves in them that melt with heat and turn on the flow. It's impossible for a fire in the basement to set off sprinklers on the third floor without the flames having spread to the third floor.
Click to expand...

I was waiting for someone to notice that. Pat yourself on the back. :D

Okay, okay, that's enough!!!!
 
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