Followup newspaper article with info about the suspected cause: King County Journal
This happened at a gas station here in Bellevue. At first from the brief video that was shown on local TV it looked like it might have been one of the new really expensive Ferraris. Turned out to be an old 308GTB (the Magnum PI Ferrari). Still about a $30,000 car. What really sucks is that he only had liability insurance on the car.
I wonder if you could fit a freestyle unicycle in the “trunk” of a 308 GTB or GTS?
$30,000 in 1977? Or as a used (unburnt) car today? I know those cars went for an awful lot more than that in the early 90s, when I drove one that belonged to a student of mine.
The moral of the story: If you own a Ferrari, even a used one, you might want to consider Collision and Comprehensive coverage. I don’t doubt it’s expensive though…
Moral #2: This is one I probably would not have thought of, but when you buy a used car, it’s probably possible to check on any recalls that were issued for that car, and make sure they were dealt with if they’re potentially dangerous.
Looks like that guy’s quick reactions saved him from some nasty burns or worse!
WERE $650,000ish. That’s when they were still for sale. All have been sold, so the only way you’re getting your hands on one is if someone sells it to you privately. That means, he can charge about whatever he wants.
Oh yeah, looks like a jim henderson production to me. And he’s probably not even a major muppet, he’s one of the little ones with a very minor role (like a sheep, or a bird)…
I like the fact the fire department released a statement saying “It was caused by static electricity build up” which is not really the kind of message you want to be releasing without significant evidence to back it up. Saying that every person is at risk from fuel ignition every time they fill up their car is a little premature, especially since it was a faulty fuel line that was the eventual cause.
Static electricity has caused fuel fires while filling the car with petrol. But there’s false rumors about static electricity and cell phones causing fuel fires. Snopes has the details.
One of the reasons that I’ve heard that some states in the US don’t have the lock tabs on the pump handle (the tabs that let you set the lever and then take your hand off the pump and then walk away) is to keep people from getting back in their car during the cold cold Winter. The thinking goes is that they set the pump on auto, get back in the car to stay warm, get out when the pumping is done, and then ZAP! Static shock when they grab hold of the fuel nozzle. I don’t know how true that is.
Its a very strange issue. People don’t expect to be able to shoot electricity from their fingers, its a bit unbelievable to the lay person.
One of the cars our family owned was involved in the BMW AG recall mentioned in the article you linked to John, and in the UK at least there are no filling pumps with lock down handles. Possibly to stop stupid people (unfortunately on the rise here) driving off with the nozzle still in the car & filling, to stop people leaving the fuelling process unattended, or to ensure safe operation of the pumps.
I especially liked the point-by-point slating of the e-mail on snopes, very entertaining and enlightening.
That yellow Ferrari wasn’t a really expensive Ferrari. It’s still a good chunk of money but there’s lots of fancy sedans and SUVs driving around that are worth more. It sounds like he got it in poor condition and then restored it. So it could have been cheap. No idea though why he didn’t have more than just liability insurance for the car.
I’ve never gone shopping for insurance on a really expensive Ferrari (or other exotic). I suspect that it would be really really really expensive. I’ve heard that most of those types of cars get self insured. Getting full comprehensive coverage on a $150,000+ car would be expensive. And the insurance wouldn’t cover taking it to the race track.
