A 56-year-old man has died inside of a car wash in California after he got out of his vehicle and got pinned against the machinery, NBC News reports.
The unidentified man is believed to have been alone at the time, according to authorities. An alarm at the car wash sounded for 30 minutes until he was discovered by another customer, who promptly called 911. Police freed him and administered CPR, but he died after he was taken to Palomar Medical Center.
“The preliminary investigation indicated that the man drove into the car wash and for an unknown reason, tried to exit his vehicle,” reads the police statement. “The vehicle then rolled forward, pinning the man between the car and the machinery. It does not appear the car wash had been activated at the time of the collision.”
Police have launched an investigation into his death to determine how it happened, and what might have prompted the man to exit his vehicle while inside the car wash. Security video is currently being reviewed, but at the time of writing, there’s no official verdict on how he became pinned between the car and machinery.
Police have billed the incident as a “traffic collision,” rather than an industrial accident. The man had full control over his vehicle at the time of the incident, because the car wash was not moving vehicles along a conveyor belt.
