Man dies after locking himself inside car

[BDC99]

Sadly, yes. I knew the country was ****ed when that hot coffee case against McDonalds won an exorbitant amount years ago.

Seriously. Exactly when I realized as well. And, yeah, it shouldn't have been THAT tough to find if he had an owner's manual.

 

[Riptide]

His car was outside a Waffle House. No way to alert others that he was in crisis?

Maybe there weren't other customers coming and going.

Seriously. Exactly when I realized as well. And, yeah, it shouldn't have been THAT tough to find if he had an owner's manual.

Maybe he didn't know how to open the glove box.

 

[BDC99]

I know you're being sarcastic, Rip, but I believe the story said he had the owner's manual. There are some minuscule things that are tough to find. Wouldn't think that would be one of them.

 

[Vombatus]

I've never heard of a battery cable coming loose. Usually those things are corroded and fused on to the terminals. Weird.

 

[Riptide]

I know you're being sarcastic, Rip, but I believe the story said he had the owner's manual. There are some minuscule things that are tough to find. Wouldn't think that would be one of them.

I wonder why he couldn't catch the attention of others in the parking lot and alert them that he was in crisis. Usually there are a lot of people coming and going at Waffle House. And when it's apparent that you might die, you gotta find some way to break that window.

Do-or-die, man. Whatever it takes. Nothing solid in the car, anywhere, to use to break a window? There's gotta be. Find a way.

 

[Vombatus]

Pull your pants off, press your butt cheeks against the side window, and start mooning the Waffle House customers. Do it nasty - Texas red eye. Surely someone would call the cops.

Although, I guess in this day and age, people are more likely to twitpic your asshole out to the social media world while you die.

 

[britwrit]

He was probably too embarrassed to cry out, or to start pounding on the glass until, well... it was too late.

I completely emphasize with him. That probably could be me. Just sitting there, thumbing through the pages, sweating my ass off, thinking Ah this is so silly... But I'm going to have a great story... Now where's that section about the door...?

 

[Ace]

I lose some sympathy with the dude lounging at Waffle House for 4 hours with his dog in a hot car.

 

[cranberry]

Cars should come equipped with these ...

 

[WriteThinking]

I remember an interview once with an EMT about emergencies and first responders, the urgency that prevails and people panicking, etc.

He said, "You'd be surprised. You can forget the simplest things when someone is dying in front of you."

I imagine the same goes for not thinking of something in the first place, and that it might also apply to you, yourself, if you were in such a situation.

It's why emergency personnel have always recommended posting your own address, phone number and nearest intersection/cross-streets by your phone in your home.

This incident is horrible, and almost unimaginable.

 

[JC]

So his family should sue.

 

[BDC99]

I would imagine if I owned such a car, it wouldn't occur to me to look up or ask anyone about how to unlock the car in such an instance. But the fact this guy left his dog in the car four hours does make me a little less sympathetic, whether he regularly checked on it or now.

 

[Vombatus]

Would have been a far better and unique story if the dog had survived and the man didn't. Still horrible though.

 

[albert77]

I have a little tool that I keep in the driver's side doorwell of my car that I can use to break out a window and it's also got a bladed notch that can be used to cut a seat belt strap in case of an emergency. An invaluable tool, and it would have saved this guy's life.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

The Baron way

Damn straight. Lawsuits, and the fear of them, keep the powerful honest.

BTW, the woman in the McDonald's case has suffered third degree burns, had skin grafts and McDonald's had been warned in the past that its coffee was too hot. But don't let that get in the way of another cheap one-liner.

 

[JC]

Damn straight. Lawsuits, and the fear of them, keep the powerful honest.

BTW, the woman in the McDonald's case has suffered third degree burns, had skin grafts and McDonald's had been warned in the past that its coffee was too hot. But don't let that get in the way of another cheap one-liner.

Work hard Baron, work hard.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Damn straight. Lawsuits, and the fear of them, keep the powerful honest.

BTW, the woman in the McDonald's case has suffered third degree burns, had skin grafts and McDonald's had been warned in the past that its coffee was too hot. But don't let that get in the way of another cheap one-liner.

And she had offered to settle with McDonald's for some paltry sum well before trial. I can't recall all the details off-hand, but I know that it was a way more meritorious case than the accepted narrative would lead one to believe. And I'm not the most plaintiff-sympathetic person around at all.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

And she had offered to settle with McDonald's for some paltry sum well before trial. I can't recall all the details off-hand, but I know that it was a way more meritorious case than the accepted narrative would lead one to believe. And I'm not the most plaintiff-sympathetic person around at all.

I had looked it up earlier. She had, if I recall, something like $10K in medical bills, and McDonald's had first offered her $800. She had wanted something like $30K, and McDonald's refused.

She ended up with a mid six-figure settlement after the appeals, and had died a few years later still getting treatment for her injuries.

It wasn't a frivolous lawsuit by no means.

 

[The Big Ragu]

The true story is: She was with her grandson, went through the drive through and bought coffee. His car didn't have cup holders. The coffee was between her legs, and she went to add cream and sugar. When she pulled off the lid she spilled the coffee. She was wearing cotton sweat pants. And she suffered very serious burns. It required skin grafting.

She did offer to settle for something like $20K and McDonalds wanted no part of it. When it went to trial, a jury awarded $640K compensation and $2.7 million in punitive damages. The judge reduced the actual verdict to just the $640K, and they settled for a lesser amount rather than going through the appeals process.

Whether it was a meritorious case is debatable. She claimed gross negligence and said McDonald's was selling a defective product. I think most people who used that case as a poster-child for how overly litigious this country is, focused mostly on the punitive damages. It seemed outrageous at the time, regardless of the question of McDonald's liability. And it fed a growing trend, in their view, of dubious lawsuits and outrageous damage awards.

At trial, the plaintiff showed that there had been a bunch of other people who seriously burned themselves on their coffee -- and McDonald's had actually paid out settlement checks of as much as $500K. In this case, for some reason, McD's decided to hold a line. Their view, which many people agree with, is that when you put a cup of hot coffee between your legs in the car and you spill and burn yourself with it, it's no more the restaurant's fault than it would be GE's fault if you accidentally burned your hand on the stove.

I think the one thing about that case that is true is that the story of what happened lost some of the the detail and context over the years.

 

[Songbird]

Pull your pants off, press your butt cheeks against the side window, and start mooning the Waffle House customers. Do it nasty - Texas red eye. Surely someone would call the cops.

Although, I guess in this day and age, people are more likely to twitpic your asshole out to the social media world while you die.

You know, that eye ain't so red anymore at 72.