Sadly, this is not an April Fool's Day story.
Here’s something straight from the files of when cars attack, which according to the New York Post is exactly what happened to Godwin Boateng from Long Island. Back in 2016 the door of his BMW X5 powered itself closed while his thumb was in the doorjam, and now the man is thumbing his nose at the automaker in the form of a lawsuit.
According to the report, Boateng was meeting someone for dinner and was standing outside the SUV with his right hand near the doorjam. The door was open, obviously, but only by about a foot according the suit. The X5’s Soft Closing Automatic Door feature then engaged, sensing the door was slightly ajar but apparently not caring that Boateng’s thumb was in the door’s path. Or rather, we should say allegedly in the path since we only have one side of the story, and it’s decidedly against BMW.
The lawsuit goes on to describe – in oddly graphic detail – how the door closed on the digit. We won’t repeat it here but if you really want the backstory you can catch it at the Post. We will share the aftermath, however, which apparently involved Boateng taking the severed bit of his thumb to the hospital. The doctors were not able to reattach it, and two surgeries later he has sort-of a thumb on his right hand. According to The Post, he occasionally wears a fake thumb sourced from a $3 magic kit to cover up the disfigurement. Perhaps he just doesn’t have much cash left after buying that Bimmer.
Yeah, it’s a strange story and if we’re honest there are many things that just don’t add up for us. BMW doesn’t have any comment obviously, and we don’t know exactly how much Boateng is looking to get from the automaker. If there’s a moral to the story, perhaps it’s this: does anyone really need a car door that can shut itself?
Source: The New York Post
