mellow-swan-8275/12/2026

Got rear-ended inside an automated car wash — now the other driver is ghosting me

So this happened a few days ago and I'm still kind of in disbelief.

I pulled into one of those conveyor-style car washes — you know, where you put it in neutral and the track moves your car through automatically. Everything was fine until we were about halfway through, right in the middle of the rinse cycle. Suddenly I feel this jolt from behind, hard enough to snap my head back. Then another one a second later.

I couldn't see anything — windows were completely blacked out with that foamy soap stuff. The whole conveyor stopped, an alarm started going off, and I just sat there not knowing what was happening.

Eventually a worker knocked on my window. Turns out the car behind me had somehow disengaged from the track and rolled into me. Twice apparently.

When we both pulled out, the driver behind me was immediately defensive. Acted like nothing happened, said the car wash was at fault, refused to give me her insurance info. I'm standing there in the parking lot for almost an hour going back and forth. I finally just called the non-emergency police line and said I needed help documenting an accident. The second I mentioned that, she suddenly found her insurance card real fast.

I filed a police report and took a ton of photos. My neck has been stiff ever since and I've got some damage to my rear bumper.

Now I'm trying to figure out: is the car wash liable at all here? Or is it all on the other driver? I have no idea who I'm even supposed to be dealing with — her insurance, my insurance, or the car wash's business insurance. Anyone been through something like this?

9 replies

Most helpful first

swift-bison-3245/12/2026
Oh wow, I had something weirdly similar happen at a tunnel wash last year. The car behind me rolled into mine too and the other driver tried to blame the equipment. Ended up being a mess with three different insurance companies all pointing fingers at each other. Hang in there — it does eventually get sorted, just takes patience and a lot of follow-up calls.
- swift-kestrel-8985/12/2026
  Be really careful here. When there are multiple potential defendants like this — the other driver AND a business — adjusters love to use that confusion to slow everything down and lowball you. Each side will say 'talk to the other one' and meanwhile your deadline to file stuff is ticking. Don't let them run out the clock on you.
- mellow-elk-0365/12/2026
  Please go get your neck checked out, even if it feels like 'just stiffness.' Whiplash symptoms can take 48-72 hours to fully show up, and sometimes what feels minor at first turns out to be a muscle strain or soft tissue injury that needs treatment. Don't wait until the pain gets worse to see someone. And keep a log of your symptoms day by day — that kind of record actually helps later.
hearty-swan-0395/12/2026
From the inside, what I saw in situations like this is that the car wash's general liability carrier almost always tried to deflect onto the other driver first. They have risk management teams specifically for these incidents because conveyor accidents happen more than people think. The business will have surveillance footage — request it in writing ASAP before it gets overwritten. That's usually on a short loop.
- clever-mole-8065/12/2026
  A few things worth doing right now if you haven't already: (1) Send a written request — email is fine — to the car wash asking them to preserve any security or camera footage from that day. (2) Get a copy of the police report as soon as it's available. (3) Write down everything you remember about what the worker said to you while you were still inside the wash. Statements made on the scene by employees can be really relevant later and memories fade fast.
quiet-raven-1825/12/2026
Not legal advice, but just so you know — you may actually have claims against both the other driver and the car wash depending on what caused the disengagement from the track. Premises liability and negligent maintenance are both real theories here. If your neck is still bothering you, definitely get seen by a doctor before you talk numbers with anyone. Medical documentation early on matters a lot. Again, not legal advice, just general info.
hearty-vole-5275/12/2026
Ugh, the fact that she just stood there refusing to share her info for that long is so infuriating. You were already dealing with a shock and then had to argue with someone in a parking lot? I'm glad you kept your cool and called the police. Good for you for not just letting it go.
tidy-crow-2825/12/2026
Three things: get to a doctor today, stop talking to any insurance adjuster without knowing your rights first, and get that surveillance footage request in writing before the end of this week. Everything else can wait. Those three things cannot.
warm-kestrel-9875/12/2026
Quick question — did the police actually cite anyone, or did they just document it? And do you know yet whether the car wash has cameras covering that interior section or just the entrance and exit? Those details are going to matter a lot for figuring out who's actually on the hook here.