‘I was shocked’: The final moments of man crushed inside car wash

A woman who witnessed the death of an elderly man at a Springvale car wash has described her horror in court of watching the tragedy unfold.

A service station operator has been charged by Worksafe over the death of a 73-year-old man. ​

A woman who witnessed the death of an elderly man who was crushed inside an automatic car wash told a court how the “shocking” event unfolded before her eyes.

A 73-year-old Mulgrave man died in 2019 after he became trapped while trying to get back into his car after the wash cycle had started, with service station operator Chevron Australia Downstream Fuels charged by WorkSafe over the incident.

According to WorkSafe Victoria, on the morning of November 25 the man drove into the car wash at a Springvale petrol station before getting out to re-enter an access code.

As the man attempted to get back into his car, he was crushed when the wash cycle started and his car door was struck by a gantry.

He died in hospital from his injuries three days later.

A Dandenong North woman, who was next in the queue at the car wash and witnessed the incident, told the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court court on April 17 how she feared for the man while watching him try to get back into his car.

Watching from her car, she said it was obvious to her that what he was doing was dangerous.

“I thought to myself watching him, ‘Oh no, please get in the back seat,” she said.

“It would have been better if he just turned around and walked out of the car wash.

“I was shocked.”

Court documents, seen by the Herald Sun, state the man was “screaming and unable to move”, while sales assistants unsuccessfully attempted to free him.

Paramedics arrived to find the man unconscious, and his heart had stopped.

Paramedics were unable to free him, so they called a fire crew who arrived about 16 minutes later, the documents state.

The still unconscious man was taken to hospital where he later died from a lack of oxygen to the brain.

The prosecution case alleges Chevron failed to ensure people using the car wash were not exposed to risk.

It alleges there were no signs instructing customers not to leave their cars while the car wash was operating and that there was no engineering control system in place between the moving parts and obstacles in the bay (people, cars or other objects), which would stop it if it hit something.

Per Bengtzen, a former employee of Karcher who sold the Springvale car wash to Chevron, claimed that the company had elected not to have a safety switch installed on the car wash.

“It would have been offered and it was declined,” Mr Bengtzen said.

“It’s to prevent the machine from hitting anything … the machine would stop.

“Over my many years, I've never heard of this happening … I have never seen or heard anything like it.”

The hearing continues Tuesday.