"Oops - we've forgotten to put the wheel nut on" - What Kwik Fit mechanic told Bristol driver after he left garage
A HORRIFIED driver says his life was put at risk when a garage allowed him to take his car away with a perilously loose wheel.
Andrew Bathe went to Kwik Fit in Cheltenham Road to get two slow punctures on his BMW fixed. After waiting an hour for the first one to be finished, he changed his mind, as he had to go to work in Thornbury, and told the mechanics not to bother with the rear passenger tyre.
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The Kwik Fit garage in Cheltenham Road, Bristol
One of the mechanics reversed his car out of the garage and handed Mr Bathe the keys.
However, they had forgotten to put the locking nut back in the wheel and the four other nuts had not been tightened up.
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Mr Bathe had driven the silver 320d M Sport about a mile and was approaching the M32 before the mechanics realised and phoned him to tell him to come back... slowly.
Fuming Mr Bathe, 37, of Stokes Croft, said: "I was about to drive on the M32, M4, M5 and A38 to get to Thornbury.
"If that wheel had come off at 70mph it could have killed me and put the lives of other road users at risk.
"It looks like the mechanics loosened the wheel to work on it, but when I changed my mind they forgot to tighten it back up.
"I can't believe they let me drive away like that. They should have health and safety protocols in place to prevent anything like that from happening.
"When I'd gone and they found the locking nut on the floor they called me from a withheld number.
"I don't usually answer those but luckily I did this time.
"I turned around straight away and drove back at 10mph, but even at that speed I could feel the wheel knocking.
"When I got out and looked at it I couldn't believe what I saw – all of the nuts were loose. My car is rear wheel drive so it's even more dangerous."
Mr Bathe complained to head office straight away and was offered a free MOT, worth about £30.
But the insurance broker added: "To value my life at the price of an MOT is an insult.
"I will never take my car back to that Kwik Fit again.
"I'm not after compensation, I just want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else."
A Kwik Fit spokesman said: "We fully accept that our process broke down in this case. Fortunately, we spotted this immediately and were able to contact Mr Bathe to prevent any damage occurring.
"We have apologised to Mr Bathe and although this is an isolated incident, we have reviewed the processes with our staff in the centre to ensure it cannot happen again."
26 Comments
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by TimInClifton
Friday, February 15 2013, 4:34PM
“I had a car serviced at an out of town garage and pretty-much the same thing happened. Except in my case the wheel *did* fall off at speed on the return motorway journey after collecting the car. It was about the scariest moment of my life as the car skidded across the lanes with the wheel lodged underneath on its side. Predictably, when I called the garage their response went along the lines of 'nothing to do with us mate. Someone must have tampered with it'.”
by CurtisHewitt
Thursday, February 14 2013, 7:45AM
“@Stephen_L
If that's you in your avatar you're far too old to be saying things like "epic fail".”
by bulbous
Thursday, February 14 2013, 2:55AM
“Admittedly I could have stopped and tightened the nuts before returning to the garage, but would you stop in the middle of St. Pauls wearing office atire and with a BMW??
no more questions your honour.”
by andybathe
Thursday, February 14 2013, 12:35AM
“Just to set a couple of things straight:
The wheel in question was leaking air due to the fact it was a new tyre it was not properly bonded to the alloy wheel, the leak was very slow it took 5-6 days to go down and at the time of this incident the tyre was inflated to over 30+PSI and was in a perfectly safe condition to drive on a moitorway!.
BMW cars are as standard noise pollution protected and so are well insulated against sound, as I was listening to the radio like most people do I was unable to hear the faint knocking of the wheel as i approached the junction to go onto the motorway.
Only due to the fact my stereo is also a bluetooth hands free I was able to recieve the call from the garage, only after the call did I turn the stereo off and then heard the knocking sound.
Admittedly I could have stopped and tightened the nuts before returning to the garage, but would you stop in the middle of St. Pauls wearing office atire and with a BMW??
As stated in the story, I do not want anything for my own gain from this story other than to make sure that this doesn't happen again, when a trained mechanic says to you that your car is ready and its all set to go you expect that to mean exactly that and you should have confidence in the fact your car is now safe to drive.
If people feel that i'm still wrong in bringing this to the attention of the masses then please feel free to pop into that garage when your car next needs repairing or servicing.”
by collegefields
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 11:02PM
“@DockLobster
Cas'nt thee afford one??”
by Brizz_Tony
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 9:06PM
“You can't get thicker than a Kwik Fit fitter, although a BMW driver willing to chance a motorway drive with a slow puncture must come close. Think Cozy Powell, God rest his soul.”
by haribodude
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 6:31PM
“1) A real man can tighten the nuts on their car
2) Why is he driving with slow punctures, surely risking others lives if they caused poor handling
3) Random rubbish story filling a slow news day?”
by FromMendip
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 6:25PM
“As someone else pointed out he was willing to drive on the motorway knowing he had a slow puncture that he couldn't wait to get fixed.
It's a pity the Post reporter didn't put that point to him to get his response.
No doubt he would have blamed someone else. Some people believe they themselves are always blameless.”
by Gazzabristol
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 5:41PM
“I can understand how this happened.
Well the wait time was ridiculous as you can pop down ablefit or somewhere like that and they will do it in no time.
The wheel nut issue was overlooked due to the guy wanting to take his car halfway through the work being done. The airline industry have maintenance procedures in place to avoid mishaps like this when unexpected events crop up (or when shifts handover) but obviously your back street car garage doesn't have such procedures in place!
I'd say on this occasion it was an understandable oversight by a worker who was obviously quite busy and rushing. Not saying it is acceptable but you can see how the chain of events unfolded.
I'd recommend if anyone finds themselves in that position again where they withdraw a vehicle halfway through maintenance, that they double check with the mechanic.
I don't use Kwik Fit due to the bad rep and don't know their layout but if they or any other companies have a nice little waiting room where they dish out free coffee etc I prefer to avoid it (e.g. last time I went to a Renault Minute it was like that). A place like ablefit might seem rough but you can at least stand there and watch what the monkeys are doing to your car.”
by pnopno
Wednesday, February 13 2013, 4:04PM
“This is a wheely good story, the reported must have been getting tyred and ended up wrenching a story from anywhere.”