
Safe and proper repairs: the importance of the ’empty chair’ and who it represents
By onAssociations | Collision Repair | Repair Operations
The “empty chair” has been a symbol on stage at Collison Industry Conference meetings for five years to remind the collision repair industry of who matters most — safe and proper vehicle repairs for the safety of the motoring public — our neighbors, families, and friends.
Jeff Peevy, past CIC chairman, shared at the Jan. 22 CIC meeting in Palm Springs, California how the “empty chair” came to be in 2019.
“I got frustrated because nowhere in the conversation was the families who were riding in the vehicles our industry repaired,” he said. “I just grabbed a chair and put it up on stage and said, ‘This is going to represent the families that are riding in the cars that our industry repairs and we’re going to use this chair as a reminder to all of us that we have a responsibility.’ Little did I know that five years later it’d still be up here.”
Peevy said the topic of a prayer meeting before that 2019 CIC session was the importance of the Biblical principle “love thy neighbor.”
At that time, as chairman, he said he told the audience: “Who is our neighbor? I’m going to tell you that the people that chair represents is our neighbor. That is our neighbors, that is our humanity, those that we are connected to, and we think of as family. I make a commitment to the CIC body that I’m going to fill that chair with an example of someone whose lives have been negatively impacted by a poor repair.”
Matthew and Marcia Seebachan were chosen as that example at CIC’s November 2019 meeting.
The Seebachans bought a 2010 Honda Fit in August 2013 without knowing that John Eagle Collision Center had attached the vehicle’s roof in a manner different than called for by the automaker during a 2012 $8,500 hail repair for the prior owner. Honda repair procedures called for more than 100 welds, and the roof was instead attached with panel bonding adhesive.
In December 2013, the Seebachans were traveling on a 75 mph stretch of road when a 2010 Toyota Tundra traveling in the other lane hydroplaned into their path causing a T-bone collision that sent the Fit into the right front quarter of the Tundra.
A Dallas County civil jury found John Eagle Collision’s repair liable for 75% of the Seebachans’ ordeal, which worked out to $31.5 million of the $42 million damages awarded along with the October 2017 verdict. The Seebachans later settled with the shop for an undisclosed amount.
“When we’re having conversations in this room, and every day across the industry, we need to remember those families who innocently ride in the cars and have trusted our industry for complete, safe, and quality repair,” Peevy said. “We are all in this as an industry for commercial benefit, we’re all making a living, but this is our neighbor that this chair represents.”
He added that the 2019 interview with the Seebachans was an emotional time for everyone in the room.
“It was one of the most difficult and rewarding things I’ve ever experienced all wrapped up in one,” Peevy said. “We all were touched. It was a moment for the industry. And then we went home and went on about our lives while Matthew and Marcia continue every day since then living with bad choices.
“Marcia was pretty much the same age as my daughter, almost to the month. When I was getting to know her, she reminded me of my daughter so much, who did the same research as Marcia did, and chose the Honda Fit — low maintenance, fairly safe for a small car. I heard the same things that my daughter told me when she and her husband purchased their little Honda Fit, also from a dealer used… Then I think about that my three grandsons — at least two of them at the time — would ride in that car, and how that became very personal to me.”
Peevy said it’s important for the collision industry to keep in mind that a complete, safe, and quality repair is to “protect our neighbors” when it comes to training, purchasing equipment, and following OEM repair procedures.
“We’re all responsible,” he said. “Let’s make sure that we’re doing the right things because we are all consciously protecting those families who ride in those vehicles and… that we are holding each other accountable because, at the end of the day, that is what matters — those that entrust their lives and their family’s lives with us.”
Images
Featured image: The new consumer representation in the “empty chair” reminds the collision repair industry of who matters most. (Lurah Lowery/Repairer Driven News)
Jeff Peevy speaks during the Collision Industry Conference’s meeting in Palm Springs, California on Jan. 22, 2025. (Lurah Lowery/Repairer Driven News)