Man and dog die trapped in his Corvette

"Murphie" (tomforhan)
06/10/2015 at 19:05 • Filed to: None

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and please RTFM.

DISCUSSION (48)

jkm7680 > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:10

GM quality control at it’s finest! Why haven’t they issued a recall already? By the day, I hate GM a little more.

I’m surprised that he didn’t kick the window out or have somebody else do it. If you’re at risk, smashing a window would be the least of your worries.

Cherry_man1 > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:13

Wow WTF! For being such an expensive car this is something that shouldn’t be a thing. I would sue the shit out of GM for this.

 V8 Rustler > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:15

If something similar happened, I have one of these in my cars:

Kinja'd!!!

Alfalfa Romeo > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:15

I like the part where they called it a luxury car.

 V8 Rustler > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 19:17

It has nothing to do with quality control. It is a stupid door release design.

facw > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 19:22

Even with a (crappy) tool, it can be hard to break these windows:

CB > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:22

... so no one thought to break a window earlier? I mean, this is tragic and everything, but really. And that’s a shitty design from GM.

Jayhawk Jake > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:22

There’s a manual release behind the drivers seat.

While tragic, had he just checked the owners manual he could have gotten out.

Jayhawk Jake > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 19:23

I hope the first part is sarcasm.

There is a manual release of the battery dies. He could have gotten out if he knew that (or looked in the manual)

facw > V8 Rustler
06/10/2015 at 19:23

Hope it’s a good one. A lot of the cheap ones don’t use a hard enough tip to break auto glass.

Jayhawk Jake > Cherry_man1
06/10/2015 at 19:23

There's a manual door release.

Wilsonic > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:23

I’ll assume it was very warm outside being Texas in June. A different time of year when the heat is not so severe and this would have been just a funny story instead of a tragic one.

Ten (or more) years ago when a team of engineers were working on the C6 Corvette, did none of them find it concerning that you could get stuck inside the car without knowing about some sort of “secret” release? I wonder if those engineers will ever read this story and think back to when they were designing the car, wondering why no one spoke up or fought harder for a conventional door locking mechanism. And lets face another fact: Corvette buyers tend to be older. And if you are designing a car that you know is bought by many seniors, maybe you should make sure that the critical, everyday things work in a manner that is very familiar and conventional?

jkm7680 > facw
06/10/2015 at 19:24

Busting out a frameless window isn’t that hard though.

AM > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 19:25

It’s nothing to do with quality control. GM just didn’t design the manual door release very well. The man also had a lack of knowledge on his car as well.

jkm7680 > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 19:25

GM is generally killing it in the recall department though. No sarcasm there, they need to step their game up and not cover anything else up.

Is this said manual release easy to find? I find it hard to believe that he wasn’t able to attract any attention or others.

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:28

Okay. Left my phone in the restaurant.

Do I have enough gas in the car? I’ll just turn my car back on and get some A/C going. Then I will drive to the fire station of which the location I know of.

However, it’s easy for me to think of this since I am not stuck inside a car. I can’t imagine how hopeless that old man must have felt.

Murphie > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 19:28

Yup, RTFM.

Cherry_man1 > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 19:28

I know there is a regular door handle but where is the reg release?

Jayhawk Jake > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 19:29

What are they covering up? They had a lot of recalls, this isn’t something that necessitates a recall.

The release is not particularly hard to find. It's in the side of the hatch area right behind the seat as I recall.

 V8 Rustler > facw
06/10/2015 at 19:31

Just saw the videos you posted. I will have to make more research about the one I bought.

V12 Jake- Hittin' Switches > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:33

The part that I don’t get is, how do you sit in a car for long enough to die of heat exhaustion without trying to get free. And also our corvette (a C6) has door release levers that operate independent of the battery. And if he was really desperate he could off taken off the targa roof. Wtf

jkm7680 > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 19:33

They covered up the ignition recall pretty good. Who knows what else they’re keeping to themselves.

 V8 Rustler > Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
06/10/2015 at 19:35

A battery cable become loose, so he couldn’t start the car. Such a sad story really.

BeaterGT > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:42

Wait so this guy brings his dog to a waffle house, forgets his phone inside, and actually dies because he didn’t know there was a manual release? This story is insane. He was a regular and no one wondered why he was there in the parking lot for however many hours?

facw > BeaterGT
06/10/2015 at 19:47

With the heat in Texas right now, I’d guess this took minutes, rather than hours.

T5Killer > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 19:54

So wait why isn’t it on the door like every other car? That makes no sense to me. (goes to check out a C6 door panel)

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 19:57

...break a window maybe?

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > V8 Rustler
06/10/2015 at 20:02

Oh yeah, I forgot about that part....

wade3566rf > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 20:14

So that means that there is a manual release in the CTS coupes right? Since it and the corvette share the gimmicky electronic door release? Really surprised nobody tried busting a window though.

ranwhenparked > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 20:21

Definately a tragedy. Certainly, a lot of things that could have been done - read the owners manual, somebody break a window before the fire department shows up, etc., but hindsight is always perfect, the fact is that what should be a simple thing - opening a car door - was made needlessly complicated on this car, and that over-complication is clearly dangerous. I’m not one for mandatory standards on minute details of car design, but I just wish companies would use some common sense on details like this.

This guy’s last few minutes were probably agony, feeling himself get weaker and weaker as he just sat feeling totally helpless in a super heated glass box. Dying in general isn’t great, but that seems like a particularly bad way to go.

DipodomysDeserti > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 20:40

Why can a crackhead figure out how to break a car window but a restaurant full of people can’t? You know the responding medics wanted to beat the shit out of every numb nut there.

roboro > T5Killer
06/10/2015 at 21:07

C6 uses this push button type thing to open the door electronically.

BeaterGT > facw
06/10/2015 at 21:44

Good point, probably around 120 inside a tiny Corvette baking in the sun.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > facw
06/10/2015 at 22:07

Have a permit, keep a gun in the car.

Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Murphie
06/10/2015 at 22:07

I though all Texans kept guns in their vehicles? Why not just shoot out the window?

Jayhawk Jake > T5Killer
06/10/2015 at 22:34

It's a button on the door

Jayhawk Jake > jkm7680
06/10/2015 at 22:35

That’s a pretty silly way to view it.

Jayhawk Jake > Cherry_man1
06/10/2015 at 22:36

There is not a regular handle, it’s a button. There's a manual release behind the driver on the side of the trunk

jkm7680 > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 22:38

*Logical

Jayhawk Jake > Wilsonic
06/10/2015 at 22:42

It’s in the manual. most people keep the manual in the car. They probably assumed people would figure it out from the manual.

Also what are the chances a battery cable comes off after someone gets in the car? I don’t even understand how that would happen. It needs power for the door to open by the traditional way to get in the car, so it was working enough for him to get in then wouldn't start and came disconnected after the door was closed?

I doubt that scenario was even considered because it is so preposterous. I mean the C6 has been around for a decade and this is possibly the only time it has ever happened

Cherry_man1 > Jayhawk Jake
06/10/2015 at 22:50

Who would think to look there? I mean common have a regular release. Your paying 60K+ for a Vette new and it has a secret batman button that lets out if you get locked in the car? It’s preposterous that a car like that doesn’t have a better emergency release.

Jayhawk Jake > Cherry_man1
06/11/2015 at 00:42

I was thinking of the handle to get in from outside. There’s a handle on the floor to get out

Kinja'd!!!

Honestly it's not rocket science. Not to mention you could remove the targa top or pop the hatch to get air or get out.

Jayhawk Jake > jkm7680
06/11/2015 at 00:44

Not really. Different management that has made a point of avoiding the same problems as before.

I love that everything GM related has to be some evil conspiracy where they kill customers. This corvette thing is not GMs fault, some old guy couldn’t get out of his car using the simple tool GM provided just for this purpose. It sucks but it’s not grounds for a recall, it’s not reasonable to blame GM, and it’s stupid to assume they are covering stuff up.

Shit happens.

Cherry_man1 > Jayhawk Jake
06/11/2015 at 01:18

Well being 70 years old the man might not of been able to open the Targa himself, also in the manual or not you kinda go into a panic when your trying to open your door to find yourself trapped. It’s a very poor design. There is no defending it. It has trapped other Vette owners who more then likely have owned more vettes then this man. Also hardly anyone reads the manual anymore.

Jayhawk Jake > Cherry_man1
06/11/2015 at 01:45

I don’t think it’s a poor design, it’s just different.

‘Who reads the manual anymore’ is stupid. If you need to figure something out, you open the manual. Especially if you are from the pre-Google generation.

In the 10 year history of the C6 Corvette what percentage of owners do you think have gotten trapped in their car and not been able to figure out how to open the door? I’d wager it’s in the 10th of a percentage point or lower range.

How many times do C6 owners enter and exit their cars before one owner gets trapped? Hundreds of thousands, if not millions. The statistical probability of the door opening mechanism failing with an owner inside the vehicle is likely very near zero, and there’s a minimum of two backup systems in place.

I’m not saying it’s the best solution, but we don’t know all the factors that went into the design of the door. It’s not outside of reason to think that this was the best solution available given all other constraints on the system.

jkm7680 > Jayhawk Jake
06/11/2015 at 07:29

It’s not stupid to assume they’re covering stuff up, they’ve done it before and nothing’s stopping them from doing it again. I’d say that this is more of a admitting their flaws thing instead of trying to defend them.

OkCars- 22k Crossroads > V8 Rustler
09/26/2015 at 11:39

esta mas facil romperlo con una moneda de 10 pesos. Y no entendi por que se quedaron atrapados, es lo de que el corvette se abre con un boton no?

 V8 Rustler > OkCars- 22k Crossroads
09/28/2015 at 02:34

Si, solo que también tiene un door release manual, pero el senior no sabia.