A Florida woman was thankful to walk away without injury after her vehicle’s brakes went out for the second time in as many months due to negligence on the part of her local repair shop, ABC Action News reported.
Shelly Darling of Zephyr Hills, FL, originally brought her car directly to Arctic Freeze Complete Auto Repair for maintenance after her vehicle’s brakes failed while on the road.
“I was really so scared, I had to get it to the safest place possible,” Darling explained to ABC Action News.
Arctic Freeze allegedly fixed the vehicle by putting on two new brake shoes and two new brake cylinders, and subsequently billed Darling $540 for the parts and labor.
However, just six weeks later, Darling found herself behind the wheel once again unable to stop her car as she exited a highway off-ramp. She pulled the emergency brake and was able to avoid a crash.
According to a third-party technician, the reason the vehicle’s brakes failed a second time was that one of the brake cylinders was never replaced.
When confronted with the never-replaced cylinder by ABC Action News, Arctic Freeze Owner Brett O’Neill conceded the part should have been replaced, but blamed the work on a technician that had since been fired for unrelated reasons.
O’Neill wrote Darling a check for close to $400 to cover her costs for a second repair and the brake cylinder that was never replaced.
O’Neill vowed to be more involved checking his technicians’ work in the future, but according to ABC Action News, Artic Freeze promptly went out of business.
It is unknown if the investigation played a role in the shop closing down.