Nothing like being trapped in an automated car wash!

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Okay...I know this is probably not y2k related...but, I guess it could be...it's really a pretty sad story. Granny, trapped in car wash, is rushed to hospital Updated 9:26 AM ET January 14, 2000 POOLE, England (Reuters) - A panic-stricken grandmother was rushed to a hospital suffering from a suspected heart attack after getting trapped in a supermarket car wash for 20 minutes. Doreen Ward feared for her life when the washer's automatic rollers pinned the doors of her car shut and no one could hear her screams for help.

"I thought I was going to die," said Ward, 60, Friday. "The rollers came down but wouldn't go back up again. I was panicking because the car wash is enclosed and nobody could see in. It felt like the end of the world."

She started having chest pains and put her hand on the car horn while trying to ring her daughter on her mobile phone.

"It was 20 minutes before people eventually came and rescued me. It was terrifying."

A spokesman for the supermarket said: "Unfortunately a landscape gardener using a lawnmower had drowned out the sound of the car horn."

-- RAT (eyesopen@watcher.com), January 14, 2000

Answers

Very scary!! Actually, this sounds like it could be a Y2K problem associated with the automation controls.

-- (marcus@wegreaf.org), January 14, 2000.

really?

how so "marcus"?

The automated car wash I frequent has automagic controls and it crashes regularly when a particular sequence of events happens:

1) Car gets washed
2) Car gets rinsed
3) Light says "Drive Forward"
4) If you paid extra, the blow dryers come on, you get 45 seconds
5) If you drive too fast through the blowers and decide to back up, it locks up the system and has to be manually reset from the guy in the middle locked room (if he's there).

My example is not a Y2K-related problem, just some bad programming?

I can easily see how someone who encounters this TODAY could say "this sounds like it could be a Y2K problem associated with the automation controls."

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), January 14, 2000.


"POOLE, England"?

Did he say "poole"?

Sounds like a hoax.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), January 14, 2000.


I don't think this is a hoax - here's the link http://news.excite.com/news/r/000114/09/britain-carwash

-- RAT (eyesopen@watcher.com), January 14, 2000.

I admit that it's darn scary to see those nasty brushes pummelling the front windshield while the side brushes whip violently against the passenger door windows! And then there's that HOT WAX JOB! Yowza! Too much excitement for a bug on the windshield!

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 14, 2000.


Mowing a supermarket lawn in January?

-- Mary (bittwork@aol.com), January 15, 2000.

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