Hi all,

Jim Arnott forwarded this to the wetwesties list, thought I'd pass it on.

Joy

> From: Cristian Torlasco <torlasco@yahoo. <mailto:torlasco%40yahoo.com.ar>
com.ar>
> Date: September 12, 2006 5:56:06 AM PDT
> Cc: stevo@efn.org <mailto:stevo%40efn.org>
> Subject: Accident in a Slittie, Please Spread the Word
>
> Dear VW Friends;
> I am sorry to have to contact you in such an unfortunate
> circusmtance. Two of my closests friends, Ronnie and Cristal, had
> just have a serious accident while driving their 1962 Westfalia.
> After being treated/surgery for about 2 weeks in Maine, they were
> recently transported back home to Cottage Grove, OR.
>
> For those of you who don't know them, they are excellent people,
> and trully VW enthusiasts (Ronnie's yard has about 15 split window
> buses and his collection includes some amazing buses). They had a
> lot of hopes and worked hard to prepare the Westy for this trip.
> THey drove fro OR to CA, then to NC and then stopped at my new
> place in upstate NY, a few weeks back. I did not hear from them
> after that, and was worried because they were not answering my
> calls and e-mails, and up to that point we had been in permanent
> contact (we always are). Well, after they left home they went to
> the Adirondracks, and then headed to Maine, were they got T-boned
> by a 22 year old girl. The impact was so strong that it ejected
> both of them through the driver's door, Ronnie hitting the pavement
> and injuring his head, and Cristal getting caught in the wheel well
> and sustaining several broken bones. They had to operate her back
> as well. They are both slowly getting better, Ronnie has terrible
> pain, just hearing the phone ringing causes him pain and nausea. I
> don't know the details of the accident, but here is a link to the
> local paper (which might be biased, I don't know, it doesn't matter
> at this point): http://bangordailyn
<http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/hancock.aspx?>
ews.com/news/t/hancock.aspx?
> articleid=139071&zoneid=178
>
> I got a call from a still very shocked Cristal two days ago, and
> found out what happened. I was asked to take care of organizing the
> trasnport of the bus and their belongings from Maine back to OR.
> The bus still sits in a body shop located near the accident scene,
> and storage and towing fees for about $600 are owed, and it keeps
> going up. I have set up a PayPal dontaion site to help with the
> costs involved in getting the bus back to them (it is a priority
> for them): http://torlasco.
<http://torlasco.tripod.com/ronnieandcristalsdonationsite/>
tripod.com/ronnieandcristalsdonationsite/
>
> Please help if you can, any amount will do. Please spread the word
> among the VW circles. I am not subscribed to the WetWesties
> anymore, but I believe a posting there should be sent, since some
> of the members might know Ronnie and Clara, especially those
> driving splitties. Also, the TYpe II list might be a good one to
> spread the word. And any local clubs.
>
> Larry, I wonder if you are still doing the Forward Fund thing...If
> so, this would be a good one for that.
>
> I have posted in the Split Bus Samba Forums something similar to
> this, and we are getting good dontation response from them. The VW
> community is awesome!
>
> Please don't call them if you have their number. You can write a
> note to them if you wish, VW Steve in Eugene (stevo@efn.org
<mailto:stevo%40efn.org> ) has
> their address, send him an e-mail if so inclined.
>
> We will make a decision on how to transport the bus in a few days,
> based on suggestions, offers, and amount of cash collected. Thanks
> in advance for your help in these bad times.
>
> Hope everyone is well,
> Cris

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