Automatic car washes can be a pain sometimes. Some, like the ones that ask you to put your vehicle in neutral and pull you through a system of sprays, soaps, and brushes, can feel claustrophobic. Others, like the ones that spin around your vehicle while you stay in one place, always feel a tad more questionable in their quality. Often, the system tells you to pull forward to a certain point before stopping. Then, sensors on the rig identify your car, so it has a general idea where the vehicle is located in relation to its moving sprayers. This means a driver has to keep the car absolutely still or risk damaging the machine or their own vehicle.

The video here shows a car wash system that appears to move around the car. However, the driver, unable, or completely ignoring the bright flashing STOP sign on the rig, decides to try to drive through the machine and its spinning brushes. This stops the device – which is a nice feature to have. The driver then reverses out of the machine before trying to drive back through it, trying to push a vertical brush out of the way. All the while, the red flashing STOP sign is blinking.

This is where things go from bad to worse. The driver tries to back up but is caught on the brushes. As the driver tries to reverse out of the machine again, the machine itself starts to tip backward as well, until the whole thing comes crashing down on the back of the car. It gives the car’s suspension a serious workout, bouncing up and and down. The video ends before anyone is seen climbing out of the vehicle, but it looks like the heaviest part fell on the rear of the vehicle – the trunk area. Anyone inside should have been okay – and possibly a tad startled.

This is an important reminder that when you’re in a vehicle and going through a car wash to always follow the directions. They may seem arbitrary or unnecessary, but at the end of the day, they are needed to stop things like this from happening.

Source: LiveLeak via YouTube