Date:         Tue, 31 Jan 95 22:13:33 EST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         cs@sypro.com (Cetin Seren)
Subject:      Rolled Westy


>   ..but, did they stand it back up and let her drive home?

>   (My brother did that with his '66 Kombi - fell over on the right side...)

I was 14 when we had a similar experience... '62 bug, my dad was driving.
he fell asleep at the wheel (me and mom were already dozing) and the car
drove over the shoulder and down the bank right before a bridge -- we were very
lucky that it actuallyhappened before we hit the bridge.  The bug rolled
over a total of 3 (yes, three) times and descended about a vertical distance
of 7-8 meters, came to rest on all fours. 

We got out, except for minor scratches due broken glass, we are all OK.
The passenger area of the bug was completely intact, but it looked like
a prune on the outside.

Dad tried to start it, no sign of life.  We remembered the battery connections,
checked under the rear seat, sure enough, it was disconnected.  We reconnected
it, dad tried one more time -- it caught instantly.

The two of us pulled the fenders off of the wheels so that they would
not scrape them, then we all got into the car, drove about 10-15 miles to
the next town, sent the car back to the body shop at our home town, and took
a bus to our destination.

It took me a *very* long time (until I had my own kids) to understand why
dad was so happy that day -- all the time I was feeling the sorrow of
seeing my favorite family possession in that shape and not really thinking
that we were indeed very lucky to be unharmed and alive...

Cetin
cs@sypro.com