Date:         Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:56:04 -0700
Reply-To:     Wayne Hagan <waynehagan@MAC.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Wayne Hagan <waynehagan@MAC.COM>
Subject:      Deer Syncro direct hit
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Hi all, I'm new to the list but not to deer and van encounters. Last summer
my wife and I were touring around the southwest in our '91 syncro Westy
(72K) and hit one. I was taking a break from driving, just south of the
Grand Canyon on our way to Flagstaff, when my wife out of the blue explained
that she just had a feeling that we were going to hit a deer and she was
going to more cautious (she never has premonitions). I didn't take much
stock in this seeing as it was still well before sundown and we were in an
open grassland area where it would be easy to spot one coming, (but hey
nothing wrong being more cautious when she's behind the wheel of my baby!).
Later on that evening, after forgetting about the dreaded deer premonition,
I was reading a book in the passenger seat when I was jolted by a scream by
my wife and the view of a deer rolling in mid air right in front of our van.
At this point I was mostly concerned that my wife might try some maneuvers
to get out of the way and cause us to lose control, we were doing about 60
mph, I told her to just keep going strait right over it, which she did, all
four wheels like a giant speed bump. Needless to say, my wife was a wreck,
we both were pretty shaken with the shock of it. The front of the van was
smashed mostly on the drivers side. the bumper was cracked in half, about
$300.00 in driving and fogs were trashed, both plastic grills were bashed
in,the radiator was leaking, and the air conditioning condensor was damaged,
the underside had a little hair but it is protected by the skid pan and
spare. No sighn of the deer, but we travelled quit a way from the impact
spot. I tried to drive it by adding water as needed but the leak got worse
and we pulled over in an abandoned rest stop and called for a flat bed. When
I got out of the van it was dark and I saw one of those exploding meteors in
the sky and simultaneously a whole coarus of coyotes started barking, (fresh
meat) oh, and did I mention that this all occured in an area of an active
forest fire, there was smoke blowing through and most of the forest was
allready burned. Rather strange night, the locals said we were near a big
vortex, ... whatever, while waiting the two hours for the flat bed to show
up we had a fire fighting supply truck stop by asking for directions to the
fire. In flagstaff we had friends to stay with while Burke of Burkes
AutoHause did a great job of getting us functional enough to get us back to
our home in Bellingham Washington. To make a long story longer, I must say,
that at that speed if we were in a car we would have been wearing deer and
glass in our faces, this doe came on with no warning, as usual, full speed
out of the forest, my wife never had a chance to hit the breaks. The
commbination of height, a 5500 pound vehicle, and the skid pan I think was
in our favor. We were lucky we didn't meet up with an elk. Somewere on the
net there is a place were you can see a head on crash test movie with a T3,
they survive pretty well, not what I expected, big floor beams to the bumper
and substatial cross beams in the later models. The van is now back to
normal but I must say I like the look of some Auzzy Bully Bars I saw the web
the other day! Now I wish the wifey would have premonitions about the
lottery.