This is un-believably tragic on 2 levels

[tool fan]

This past Friday, I had heard that there was a fatal accident involving a young kid and a Porche about 2 miles from my house. On Saturday my in-laws had a bar-b-que and invited a number of their friends over. One of thier friends is a Polizei...we will call him Bob. Bob is a great guy, volunteered for International Police duty in the former Bosnia-Herzogovina and Kosovo...just good people. Well me and Bob always talk cars when he comes over and apparently he was at the scene of the accident. Details are as follows:

Young kid, 21 years old and a mechanic for the local Porche dealership, was handed the keys to the ONLY Porche Cararra GT in a 300 mile radius and told to take it to the "CAR WASH" which was only about 1/2 mile away. Well being a kid, 21 years old and just handed the keys to a 612 hp exotic car, he did what 9 out of 10 kids in that situation would do......He gunned it from a stop light, spun out of control into the oncoming traffic, and was hit semi-head on. The car split in half and the kid was killed instantly. To add insult to injury, rumor is that the Porche dealership is going to try to sue the kids family for the price of the car.......Now I would be more likely to believe that the family would sue porche for negligence. At any rate....loss of life was tragic as was the loss and total destruction of a 440,000$ car. I asked for pics, but "Bob" said all the pics had the kids body in them and therefore he could not give me any.

 

[wood_e]

Although this is a very tragic event all I can say is that the kid was lacking in responsibility. Granted I would be incredibly tempted to run that car to the red I have to say if the car isn't yours then don't play with it.

 

[Average Jae]

sad story all the way around.

shouldn't the car be insured, thus porsche dealer should be ok w/ it? i''d imagine the insurance co would trying to go after the family. then again, what do i know? you called it OP! talk about adding insult to injury!

 

[theBMWenthusiast]

thats sad

 

[Bryan330i]

Sad

Forget about the car here, just wait until you see the insurance claims for workers comp. and general, not to mention the cases that may be filed. Not sure if it would be the same there.

 

[whitej34]

Where are you at in Germany Tool Fan? I lived in Darmstadt for the last 2 years. Being 22, I would have done the exact same thing that kid did, hopefully not hitting a semi. That is sad anyway you look at it.

 

[black330i]

Why would they send a $400K car to a car wash and not detail it themselves? I won't even take my 330 to an automatic car wash.

 

[jszar]

Why would they send a $400K car to a car wash and not detail it themselves? I won't even take my 330 to an automatic car wash.

what i was thinking.

there is no way in hell they can sue his family right? as long as he is independent, they have nothing to do with him. besides, insurance and workers comp would cover those costs. it doesnt make sense to me. still a very sad event though.

 

[whitej34]

Its Germany. I dont know if they can sue his paretns, but their laws are alot different than in the states.

 

[MrElussive]

Very unfortunate thing to happen. The Carrera GT is a SERIOUS car, the kid should have been more careful especially since it WASN'T HIS CAR. I don't understand what it is about people not having any reservations about driving someone ELSE'S car hard like that (referring to valet, these random mechanics, etc.). The kid definitely did not deserve that to happen and it's so terrible

Just on a side note; with a lot of dealerships, if there is a car wash place nearby, they just take all their cars there to get them washed instead of washing it themselves. For example, my local BMW dealership (DiFeo BMW) has an auto car wash across the street and they just take the cars there to wash them....I'm not sure if they do this all the time, but I've seen some of the mechanics drive the BMW's through sometimes because I take my car to this car wash also during the winter. It's too cold here in NJ during the winter to hand wash a car outside.

 

[selavia]

That really sucks. I too find it hard to fathom driving a car that isn't mine to its limits; usually when I drive a buddy's car I'm overly cautious and I drive irritatingly slow.

While this is not the exact situation, when I was in high school, one kid who went their was racing down a really straight road and lost control of his car and he tore down one side wall of a mercedes repair shop. The kid died instantly and the owners of that shop did sue the parents for the cost of the wall. I dunno what the end result was, but I do know that the shop did sue for it.

 

[adrean8j]

What I find interesting is that MOST dealerships with a auto-shop have their OWN car wash machine. At least in Mannheim the BMW dealership and the Opel Dealership that I have been to have their own. That is really trajic for the kid and his family but you can be sued for things posthumusly(did I spell that right?) and big companies with no face will do it to you.

 

[tool fan]

All very good responses.....The car wash is about half a klick away from the dealership. There is also a Mercedes and Mitsubitchy dealerships across the street. That is the car wash of choice apparently. I said the same thing about not hand washing a car of that value.
I don't believe there is a workmans comp here, could be wrong though. I does seem to me that the dealership was more negligent in giving a "kid" the keys to that beast of a car without the "kid" being trained to handle that kind of power. Just because a person can ride a donkey doesn't mean they can tame an Arabian.

White 34, I am right in between you and Adrean8j in Wiesbaden.

 

[Wadula]

the dealership can´t sue the family for what the kid did. he is over 18 and self-responsible for what he did. no way to get the family into that game. vice-versa the chances are indeed good. it is correct that the kid was supposed to know what he has under his butt, but a judge might consider it intolerable risk to expose a kids character to a threat and temptation like that.

 

[dzervit]

It is sad.... sad that the beautiful car got wrecked!! The dealer is a total idiot, and apparently also hired idiots for employees that had no respect or common sense. The combine IQ of that dealership prolly doesn't even match the IQ of my twig & berries. Now that I think about it, this really isn't sad.. it's friggen' hilarious!!

 

[Ghost]

Very sad. I could be wrong but I can’t see the management of the dealership giving keys to a car that exclusive to just anyone. It could have been a fortunate opportunity given to a very hard working, responsible guy. Sadly, his adrenaline got the best of him.

 

[Pink_Floyd]

It is sad.... sad that the beautiful car got wrecked!! The dealer is a total idiot, and apparently also hired idiots for employees that had no respect or common sense. The combine IQ of that dealership prolly doesn't even match the IQ of my twig & berries. Now that I think about it, this really isn't sad.. it's friggen' hilarious!!

I can imagine you'll get some flames for this, but I just want to say that I do agree with you in most respects. I don't find it "friggen' hilarious" but only because such a great car was destroyed. I don't see why everyone is so upset about the kid. He did such an incredibly stupid thing. Sure, no one wants him to die, but c'mon, how about if he decided to climb a telephone pole and electricute himself or cover himself in gas and light himself on fire. He kid was an idiot. Whenever I am driving someone elses car I am especially careful with it, ESPECIALLY when it is faster/nicer than mine. Oh well, sucks for the owner of the car, the dealership and the kids family but bad things happen all the time. I wouldn't classify this as tragic.

 

[hustler]

I can imagine you'll get some flames for this, but I just want to say that I do agree with you in most respects. I don't find it "friggen' hilarious" but only because such a great car was destroyed. I don't see why everyone is so upset about the kid. He did such an incredibly stupid thing. Sure, no one wants him to die, but c'mon, how about if he decided to climb a telephone pole and electricute himself or cover himself in gas and light himself on fire. He kid was an idiot. Whenever I am driving someone elses car I am especially careful with it, ESPECIALLY when it is faster/nicer than mine. Oh well, sucks for the owner of the car, the dealership and the kids family but bad things happen all the time. I wouldn't classify this as tragic.

because its a human being. a life. worth more then a car....

 

[MrElussive]

It pisses me off at how stupid this kid was. The Carrera GT has 4 times the horsepower and 10 times the price tag of the average car, yet he still thought that flooring it in 1st gear would be fine. I think it was just some immature kid who could barely drive stick or something....everybody knows that if it's a powerful car and you're not used to it, you don't go out and floor it in 1st gear at the first chance you get....1st gear is the most raw, it's where the most shit can go wrong.
He doesn't deserve to die but based on his actions with the car, he might as well just walk off the roof of a building. I'm sure the dealership was just giving him a treat by letting him take the Carrera GT to the car wash but he obviously took advantage of that and paid an undeserving price for it.

 

[fran]

A friend of mine recently died from a car accident. Although she usually drank and drove, she wasn't drinking that night and a man ran a red light and put her in critical condition and she died from complications a couple of weeks later. point is that i hate careless idiot drivers