> wouldn't be saying that competence had much to do with
> my situation last night.

not what we said at all ... but 'paying attention' plays a lot to do
with how 'safe' any vehicle is. even a chevy astro! ;)

> p.s. vanagons are not safe against anything of
> comparable size...show me a crash test with any other
> minivan out there...

but that's the old beetle-vs-cadillac arguement ... mass will always
win out. :(
still, i'd be willing to bet the vanagon would come out ahead of the
astro,
in a real world crash .. that astro really sucks! :(

the best way to find out how well a type/model car holds up is to go
to the junkyard and look around. now, how many you find is not a good
indicator ... like vanagons, there might not have been many of them
sold. but take a look at the condition of the driver/passenger
compartment of the ones that are there.

interesting how most gm sport-utes have collapsed roofs in rollovers.
also how undamaged the mercedes and volvos are on the inside ... i've
rarely seen any blood inside them. the minivans, like chrysler,
however, don't do so well. nor the little japanese cars. :(

but the vanagons have all been ... well ... relatively UNdamaged. that
frame really does take the beating. even the rollovers (more of them
than front-enders. quite a few side-impacts, though ... you'd think
something as big as a bus would be easy to see!!) are fairly intact,
without any collapsing of the roof.

so basically, what you're saying and we're saying is: if you had NOT
been paying attention, you could easily have become a statistic ... no
matter what car you were driving. :(  and it's not just your own
vehicle .... the number of morons in the other cars is increasing
daily! so stay alert out there, folks! :)

unca joel