This is quite sad and interesting.  It made me wonder when the US started
requiring shoulder belts in the rear seats (it was certainly after 1986,
the year of their van).  And, it seems that the basis of the claim is that
VW knew that the shoulder-belts were safer because they put them in other
models (I didn't know that 86 vanagons had shoulder-belts in other
countries).

It doesn't make sense to me.  It seems like this family should have sued
the US gov't for not having stricter regulations.

blake

On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, Jason Yasment wrote:

> A gentleman sent me this article from a New Hampshire newspaper.  It is
> sad, but it has some interesting points.
>
> http://www.jasontek.com/vw/vanagon_lawsuit.jpg
>
> If anyone cares to make the file smaller, I'll put up the smaller version.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jason M Yasment
> '84 Westfalia
> Troy, NY
> Free, encrypted, secure Web-based email at www.hushmail.com