It’s been five years since Jeff Peevy, at that time the chairman of the Collision Industry Conference (CIC), placed an empty chair on the dais at the front of the room where the meeting was taking place. Peevy, now the vice president of industry relations for I-CAR, was concerned that a critical viewpoint wasn’t being taken into consideration during discussions at the meeting: that of the consumer, the drivers and passengers in the vehicles the industry insures and repairs.
“Those families who ride in the cars should be at the forefront of our thoughts,” Peevy said at CIC in early 2019.
Though Peevy’s term leading CIC ended in 2020, subsequent CIC chairmen have chosen to continue to have the empty chair, representing the industry’s customer, remain on stage at every quarterly meeting.
At CIC in Palm Springs on Jan. 22, Peevy again spoke of its importance. He reminded CIC participants that in 2019 he also “filled that chair” by inviting a young couple, Marcia and Matthew Seebachan, who were badly injured in an improperly repaired vehicle that was in a subsequent accident, to speak at CIC about their experience and the lasting impact it had on their lives.
The first Collision Industry Conference of 2025 drew a large crowd from around the country to Palm Springs, CA.
The Seebachans eventually won a $42 million judgment against a Texas dealership body shop, and an undisclosed settlement from the insurer that paid for the prior repairs made to the vehicle they purchased, after a jury found the shop’s failure to follow OEM repair procedures contributed to the severe injuries they sustained -- injuries that made it challenging for them to even travel to or speak at CIC two years after the accident.
“This wasn't just a series of unfortunate events,” Marcia Seebachan said at that 2019 meeting. “This was something intentionally chosen to have been done to the vehicle that impacted everything that happened to us.”
At the most recent CIC, Peevy asked attendees to always remember that.
“We went on about our lives while Matthew and Marsha continued every day since then living with bad choices [made by our industry],” Peevy said. “So here’s the thing: 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 they have entrusted to our industry for complete, safe and quality repairs. We are all in this industry for commercial benefit. We’re all making a living, but this is our neighbor that this chair represents. They’re families just like ours.”
He said that should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind when they make decisions about their work and business.
“When we educate ourselves, it should not be because of some requirement from another organization that says, ‘You need to take this training,’” Peevy said. “It needs to be because we want to be informed to be able to make a complete, safe and quality repair so that we protect our neighbors. When we’re told to buy certain equipment or we’re told to buy tools, we shouldn’t be buying them just because it is a requirement of a network. It should be because they are required to perform a complete, safe and quality repair. When the OEs do the research on the vehicle and say, ‘This is the proper way to repair it,’ how dare any of us question it unless we've done a lot more research. Because we need to protect the families riding that car, our neighbors.
“Because at the end of the day, that is what matters: those who entrust their lives and their family’s lives with us.”
Peevy’s impassioned comments elicited a standing ovation from those attending CIC in Palm Springs.
John Yoswick