Date:         Tue, 27 Apr 1999 12:46:23 -0700
Reply-To:     Steve Macaulay <smacaulay@INFINTIUM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Macaulay <smacaulay@INFINTIUM.COM>
Subject:      FW: Vanagon crash story - vanagon 1 toyota 0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Terry,

Here's some info on my van's experience last night.  I sent this to a
vanagon mailing list I subscribe to.

Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Macaulay [mailto:smacaulay@infintium.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 9:12 AM
To: Vanagon mail list
Subject: Vanagon crash story - vanagon 1 toyota 0


Last night at 3:00 a.m. I was awakened by a large crashing noise outside.
When I looked out the window, my mint 89 westy was halfway on the road and
my yard and a car was underneath the front of my van.  It seems like some
kids had tried breaking into a car somewhere in the neighborhood.  They were
discovered in the act, and the car's owner decided to give chase when they
took off.  Their high speed chase ended when the punks crashed their car
into my parked van.  They took off into the woods and are still at large as
far as I know.  The guy who gave chase stayed and explained the story.  I
just had to ask him what was he planning on doing when he cornered the three
kids.  He was pumped up and sorry about the whole thing and at least he
stuck around instead of leaving the scene also.

The good part is the van seems to have held up well in this unplanned crash
test.  It was struck on the front towards the drivers side.  It was lifted
over a curb and back 20 ft.  There is only one main dent where the initial
blow occurred and a few bends along the front.  The bumper and driver's
lights are toast.  No visible damage inside.  The front door is very hard to
open now.  It didn't look too bad, but the crash officer estimated around
$1400 to $1800 damage.  The other car's (Toyota Camary) front end was messed
up pretty bad.  The hood was bent in half, the engine pushed back and up,
the radiator was flat as a pancake.  You could see the indentation in the
back of a front seat where someone's knees rammed into it.

The good news is that it appears that a vanagon holds up pretty well in a
front collision.  It was amazing to see the difference in damage to both
cars.  Another good thing is knowing that at least one of the punks was
wondering "oh shit" as he was running away from his crashed car.  The cops
came and took it.  They will hopefully get him soon too.  I hope they had
fun running in the woods last night.  From the contents of the car, they
appeared to be college age kids.  It was an out of state car.  I only hope
that that kid really needed those textbooks for those final exams that are
happening in the next week or so.  He can claim them at the police office.

Steve

89 Westy