Years ago I was way under the back of my car changing oil once. You have to be under the back for an MR2 Mark I and you have to be way under it to get at that cursed filter location. I had a floor jack in place holding up the car but that jack had a slow leak so I had a jack stand as well under what was a solid structural place. However the weight was still on the floor jack. Apparently I had nudged the jack stand while wiggling under there because as the floor jack slooowly came down the jack stand missed the support spot and wasn't doing much of anything. Before I noticed it was getting too tight I got trapped by the weight and couldn't get out. If it weren't for my son pumping up the floor jack I would probably still be there.My old firm had a case years ago where a guy was using the standard jack to change the oil on a Saturn SL. He was under the car and it slipped off the jack and applied pressure to his chest so that he way-too-slowly asphyxiated.
I happen to (still) have a Saturn S series and have been changing the oil on it for nearly 10 years. It has served all 4 of my kids well. Yes- to get to the oil filter, it's best to take the right front wheel off, but a real floor jack and most importantly, a jack stand make this a very safe operation. The only thing I can figure is that the guy was slid underneath it to get the drain plug...but that can be reached without getting as far underneath as he did.
We represented the Estate of the decedent...I never believed in the case, but I was super-far down the totem pole back then.
Barnard v. Saturn Corporation, 790 N.E.2d 1023 | Casetext Search + Citator
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Now I make damn sure the car weight is actually on the jack stand instead of mostly on the floor jack with the jack stand supposedly in a good place. In fact I frequently use a second jack stand now.