I'd like to play devil's advocate for a minute:

1) If we base our opinions on Vanagon safety on anecdotes from people on
this list, we are restricting attention to a very non-representative sample
of Vanagon owners. Obviously, anyone who has been seriously injured or has
had a passenger killed or injured is going to lose their enthusiasm for
Vanagons and not participate in this list. I think this would be the same on
the Volvo lists, Mercedes lists, or Unimog lists. If you want to see
something disturbing, look at the link I found when I was searching for a
3-passenger middle seat:
http://www.state.nh.us/courts/supreme/opinions/0009/trull.htm
Regardless of who (or what) is at fault here, it sort of takes the wind out
of any enthusiast's sails to see or experience something this tragic.

2) I am heartened by the anecdotal evidence that Vanagons don't deform much
in accidents. I think the height and build quality helps. But don't forget
that TWO things help you come out ahead in a big exchange of energy between
your car and another car: mass and distance. Mass is nice, because you
accelerate the other guy, rather than getting accelerated yourself; distance
is nice because it increases the delta T over which you get your V delta'd.
A=DV/DT. So we shouldn't become too overconfident when we see seriously
smashed up front ends on passenger sedans and we don't see them on Vanagons.
The camper that rolled into a tree at 65 mph had to accelerate from 65 mph
to 0 mph in about a foot, which HAS to hurt. Crush zones are good.

I guess my point is that I am encouraged that Vanagons are much safer than
the general public thinks they are, but that we shouldn't fool ourselves
into thinking we are driving an S-Class Mercedes. Just be careful and drive
like you are on a motorcycle (alert, thinking of escape routes) regardless
of the car you are driving.

Daniel Snow
PhD Student
UC Berkeley

'82 Vanagon Diesel
'78 Puch Maxi Luxe Moped
'01 Xootr Scooter

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