LEBO — Lebo Garage Towing is temporarily out of business and its owners do not know when they’ll be able to re-open. In late February, a truck rolled off a fuel island and smashed into the building.
Robert Harsch, who co-owns the business with his mother and father, said the truck was sitting at BETO Junction and rolled off the fuel island. Allegedly, the driver had forgotten to set the brake.
The damage to the garage is extensive and Harsch said they are going to have to rebuild.
“The force of the impact caused the truck to push through and into our rollback, which in turn shoved the rollback into our semi-truck wrecker, pushing the semi-truck wrecker approximately 11 feet out the back door,” Harsch said.
Harsch said the truck that rolled into his business is owned by Trans Am. He is having a hard time getting Trans Am to respond to requests for payment for the damages done to the building and parts, which is more than $50,000. Harsch said damage to the rollback is $23,000 and the wrecker will cost about $25,000 to fix. Then there are the parts that have to be replaced, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.
“We are currently trying to work with their insurance company regarding damages and repairs,” Harsch said. “ ... At this point, they appear to want us to pay for all damages and repairs up front and then we hope they will do the right thing and pay up later. A small business cannot pay up front for the large amount of repairs to our wreckers and parts and equipment that was done when one of their trucks demolished our business. We no longer have a way to provide revenue/income.”
Harsch said he is not getting very far with Trans Am despite multiple attempts. Attempts to verify this information failed as Trans Am did not return The Gazette’s phone calls.
For now, Harsch is out of business until the building can re-built. The delay is costing him thousands of dollars a day.
“As you can see from the pictures, our business at this location has been shut down,” he said. “There is no longer and office or parts room and the electricity has to be shut off.”
Even though the monetary losses are large, Harsch considers himself lucky. There was nobody at the garage at the time of the accident.
“This was a lucky day,” Harsch said. “If the incident had happened at any other time of day there would have been employees or/and myself sitting in the office when the truck hit and the ceiling of the office came down and hit the floor of the parts room located on top of the office.”
madpoet (anonymous) says...
Wow! What a dramatic picture. I sure hope they get that straightened out soon. What a shame a bigger company is stomping on a little one. Thank Heaven no one was hurt.
March 13, 2009 at 3:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bobhornet (anonymous) says...
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving company--these people ripped me off big time several years ago.
March 13, 2009 at 4:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wirewatt (Ken Bazil) says...
I thought if you had a problem you turned it over to your insurance co. and got your property fixed and they settled with the other owner.
Sounds like something is not as it seems here.
March 13, 2009 at 5:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
mickey66839 (anonymous) says...
figured they be useds to wrecks they are always in the derbys
June 28, 2009 at 4:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
Did they ever git that thar truck outa thar er wut?
June 28, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
Where did Ms. Nance learn english? Whatever happened to news reports that were accurate, gramatically correct and spell-checked? Ms. Barbara Walker would be aghast! I bet they don't use the Gazette as newspapers in the classroom; unless, it's to show poor grammar and mis-spelling.
August 31, 2009 at 2:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gardenman (anonymous) says...
I've noticed on several occasions that not only is Ms. Nance lax
in her spelling and grammar, but she desperately fails to report
"both sides of the story". Perhaps time spent once again in
high school journalism classes would remedy this.
August 31, 2009 at 5:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )