Date:         Wed, 29 Apr 1998 00:35:35 -0500
Reply-To:     Tonya Pope <tonya@TEAMM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Tonya Pope <tonya@TEAMM.COM>
Organization: Team MainStreet, Inc.
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Crashworthiness
Comments: To: vanagon@vanagon.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

> >Hate to be a party pooper, but we vanagoneers should not get too smug about
> >crashworthiness.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash
> >tested one of our beloved bricks at 35 mph head-on into a fixed barrier.  I
> >obtained the crash footage from the National Crash Analysis Center, which
> >maintains a catalogue of all government crash tests on a website.  (Just
> >point your browsers to NHTSA)


fwiw, those head-on tests have to be taken with a grain of salt.  1) how
many accidents have you seen in real life involving a straight head-on
collision with a brick wall (and a brick wall as tall as a vanagon at
that)?  If a vanagon would be in a head-on collision, in all likelihood
the opposing force would be lower than the passengers (or at least the
majority of the passenger)  2) even the vehicles that perform exemplary
on those tests often perform miserably in similar off-center tests
(which is a much more likely accident scenario).

There was a 20/20-type show that showed and compared vehicles (seems
like they did have a VW in there -- a jetta maybe?) in how they
performed on the 'standard' head-on test and on a second 'off-center'
test.  Very foggy memory says that there was one vehicle that you'd have
a couple scratches and walk away from a straight head-on  into a brick
wall, but that very same vehicle if you hit something off-center would
nearly kill you.

As for the seatbelts, mine are in tiptop shape and lock the spool-out as
they should.  If anybody has some that don't, whether due to age or
perhaps they were like that originally, it might be a good idea to
replace/repair (I personally would opt to replace, don't want to take
too many chance with safety).  A local helicopter pilot was killed a few
years ago when he made an emergency landing and his shoulder harness
didn't 'lock' to hold him back (got the throttle stick in his neck or
chest or something grissly like that)

Tonya
87 Vanagon GL Wolfs












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