Mopars damaged at auction

[RCKSTR]

Did anyone see all the photos of the dozens of damaged cars from last weeks windstorm in arizona? Here is a few shots of several of mother mopars best that took a good hit..


Heres a link to all the destruction...


http://picasaweb.google.com/kingsfp/RussosteelAuction110?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGlh-XG2vSxrQE&feat=email#

[RCKSTR]

more....

[RD]

SUMBEOTCH!!!!

[MoparManJim]

Just what the heck landed on the cars? 

And more of all, who the heck is going to pay for that damage the owners or the people that runs the auction block

[69rtse4spd]

 Well you know the insurance company's, they will just call it an act of GOD & refuse to pay. Do not know about the specialty insurance company's. Just my  .

[RCKSTR]

Attached herewith are 250  plus  photos  of the damage and  what happened in Scottsdale this past Thursday evening during the  horrific storm that hit around 6:15 pm at  the Russo /Steel  Car  Auction  which  was hit the hardest in North Scottsdale  as both tents where the sold and unsold cars were parked experienced   65 MPH  +-  winds,     ( not km/hr ) winds   which got under these two football field  size  tents and lifted them hurtling  them onto the adjacent 101 east bound adjacent freeway closing the road for hours and shutting down the Auction immediately.     The Barrett Jackson  Auction  took pre-cautionary action  several hours earlier  that day at their close by location  that afternoon  because   the local weather stations   were predicting 2-3 days in advance of   this looming storm and they subsequently  parked 18 wheelers all around the perimeter of the open  tents attempting to close in the  ends and sides  of their outside    tents where the  cars were stored  blocking the  impact of some of the predicted wind damage.     Legal representation extending from  Haggerty Insurance ,  Russo Steel and private insurance companies for car sellers and car buyers   will have a hay day with these  damaged car claims as the Attorneys  will  allege that  Russo /Steel may have been negligent in that they should have ta ken the same pre-cautionary measures as did Barrett/Jackson because Russo /Steel  like everyone else who had access to  a television weather report   knew of the coming storm days in advance and yet  did nothing  extra to secure the tents similar to what Barrett Jackson did to avoid possible   damage  from the coming  storm.     Legal issues may also arise as to who is responsible for the damage  because of when the title to these  vehicles actually  changes  hand as the title to these cars has to be given to the Auction Company at the time the sellers  bring in the car to sell and  the title is signed off at that time in blank by the seller  while  eventually waiting  for the Auction Company to then sign over the car to the new buyer after the car is sold  as the Auction  Company does not take the title in their name however they hold an owner/seller  title signed  transfer in blank for the new buyer.     Everyone was evacuated from the   Russo Steel Auction when the storm hit  fending for themselves and the Auction was closed until today Sunday   Jan 24 attempting to sell damaged and undamaged cars probably subject to fixing the cars , however   the law suits are probably being stacked up right now and the ambulance chasing Attorneys are switching to representing car buyers and car sellers at these  Auctions who suffered car damage.     Enjoy the photos and as reports emerge,    so to speak,  on the legal issues I will forward this info to you for the Membership to enjoy.( hoping that none of our Members have suffered this type of damage ).     Ken Boswell,   Member , Scottsdale ,   Az

[bull]

It's sad how nasty most of that damage was. Those support posts really inflicted the kind of damage you just don't typically see, and most of it is in some really difficult areas to fix.

[chargerboy69]

Wow, those are bad.  I do not remember seeing those yet.  The roofs of the General and the Superbird.    And the poor Cuda.

[WHITE AND RED 69]

That SUCKS! Hopefully they will be covered by the insurance.

[Mike DC]

 
Ouch.  That's a real WB General Lee.

 

[70charginglizard]

All the more reason why I would never sell my car at one of those events.

Not that I would sell my car period.

[Silver R/T]

Good thing I didn't have any of my cars there

[Cooter]

I only heard this on another site, but The rumor is, the PRIVATE owners insurance has to cover the losses as the Auction company is doing just that and calling this an act of god and out of their control...Est. are in the $10-$20million range...

[89MOPAR]

 " Act of God " ?      God didn't forget to weigh down the frames of those bldgs.  Maybe they could have rolled up the sides of the fabric and just let the wind whip thru the bldgs instead...then they wouldn't have lifted.
 Not sure of legality in this situation, but in a general legal sense, if i lend Fred an , say an ipod, and Fred drops it on the ground, and it gets run over and crushed, Fred is responsible. He accepted responsibility for the item , it was in his care, he was negligent, he owes me an ipod [ or whatever a used ipod is worth] .
  Don't see as this is any different. Half the car owners were probably not even there.
 Glad i don't have Haggerty - watch for your premiums to increase....

Where is Kim with the 71 Hemi car to weigh in with legal knowledge ??

Sorry for the owner but the convert cuda looks pretty good without a windshield...

  Ouch, i had to stop looking at that picsaweb link, poor cars.  Wish there were some pics of the portable bldgs toppled over.
Could be some good deals to be had down there......

[bull]

All the more reason why I would never sell my car at one of those events.

Right. Because this sort of thing happens almost every time.

[RCKSTR]

I was in vegas at the time of the windstorm, and I can tell you my flight was delayed for 4 hours because of the weather. I have to agree, if my car was there, and I knew bad weather was coming, I would do all I could to get it out of a "pop up tent" and into a real building. Its a real shame what happened, but there was plenty of warning

[Mike DC]

       
This while incident will probably force some new light on the questions about who has liability and when. 


That's usually how it works in this world. 
If you want a safety issue dealt with, just wait until it kills somebody. 

 

[Cooter]

Some of the cars were inside of a building and weren't hurt...From the first set of pics there was a GTS? Dart (440) and some brand X cars that weren't hurt, but of course, does nothing for those that were hurt..

[SG1022]

3 days warning. . .


They should at least of cut loose the fabric and let it fly.  No wind will ever be strong enough to blow those poles over, but since they had the fabric on creating a kite affect 

[Aero426]

" Act of God " ?      God didn't forget to weigh down the frames of those bldgs.  Maybe they could have rolled up the sides of the fabric and just let the wind whip thru the bldgs instead...then they wouldn't have lifted.
 

The tents were open on all sides.   

[Ghoste]

First off, unless you were there you have no idea how strong that wind was.  I was there and I can assure you it was strong enough to blow those poles over.  Secondly, if you have ever seen the weay those tents are erected fro an auction you would know that it isn't quite as simple as cutting the sides free.   The curtains are not a lightweight fabric, they aren't attached at shoulder height (read that as tall ladders needed to cut them down), and the peak of the tents would still catch the wind like a giant sail.

[Mike DC]

I don't blame anyone for the tent coming down. 

But the bottom line is the cars should have been moved indoors.  It's millions of dollars worth of cars that easily move under their own power. 

[Ghoste]

You're right, but again it's one of those things where maybe you had to be there to understand.  R&S were set up in an open area and moving all those cars quickly under hard cover would have meant A) having a facility readily available and large enough to house them all quickly B) having sufficient personnel on hand to move them quickly and C) having them all start easily.
Don't kid yourself about the number of auction cars which move easily under their own power, there are a lot of staff dedicated to getting those things to fire and move and keep the auction block looking smooth.  Many, even most will start and run fine but to move that many cars at once would have only taken a handful of turds to bugger the lot.
I agree with what you're saying Mike but that storm struck quickly.  We had rain all day but that came up fast.  Our auction was being held indoors and we were even concerned.  I can imagine what it was like for those guys set up out there in the tents sites.