Negligent Tire Shop

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Tire shop sells and mounts two new tires on my truck. A half hour or so after I left the tire shop one of the tires falls off and my truck receives extensive front end axle etc……… damage. I called the tire shop but they were closed. I then proceeded to call a tow truck driver who said I was lucky I was not on the freeway “you could have been killed”. Come to find out the lug nuts on the second tire were not tightened properly either.

I had the truck towed back to the tire shop. I am with the owner of the shop right now and he said this could have happened to anyone. He is brushing this entire incident under the rug. I can’t believe a person that does this type of work can be so negligent and get away with it.

I am currently 300 miles from home and I need to get my truck fixed and back on the road. The owner is accessing the damages right now. I hope he agrees to fix the damage. Is there any legal recourse that I can take let’s say after he hopefully agrees to fix my truck. Do I give up that right by agreeing to let him fix the damage. The owner has a terrible attitude and I think his shop needs to be liable for this type of work. I would hate to see someone get killed because they did not tighten the lug nuts on a vehicle. After all it is a tire shop………………………………………Thanks
Pete

The shop is liable for the damages they caused. You can't sue for that could have happened. You can only sue for what DID happen.

If they fix the vehicle, what else do you want? The owners wife my agree to bake you some cookies if you're nice.

I don't get this?
They didn't tighten the wheel lug nut.
One tire fell off while you were driving down the road.
Even the tow truck driver told you that if you were on the highway you could have been killed.
Well they didn't succeed the first time, so now you are given another chance????

Thank you for your post. I now understand what Darwin was talking about.

I'm thinking there's more to this story. Was this a different set of rims, than you drove in on? Or large oversize tires, that you would not notice a vibration?

It would be unusual, for the lug nuts to all loosen the way they did, and you not have vibrations and squirmy front end.

But clearly the lugnuts should have been tightened, if they weren't. If the rims were different, then could have been caused by incorrect lugnuts for the new rims (alum vs steel), or incorrect rims (wrong diameter holes, or incorrect fit on the center hub because it's the wrong vehicle).

I fail to see the issue. Loose lugnuts are fairly common, and depending on how many there are in total vs. how they fell off, it very well could have happened with no notice.

As far as getting repairs done, if the shop refuses to, or wants to do a half-assed job, the only recourse (other than a visit with a baseball bat, a la "Falling Down"), is a lawsuit.