Just use your seatbelts, they work. My daughter was using them and it saved
her from a head injury, and now she's a lifetime user.

Back seats don't have airbags in most cars.  Lap belts or lap with shoulder
belts are usually it, and front seat passengers are the "energy absorbing"
feature when the backseat seat belts are not used.  The passenger behind the
energy absorbing driver has the highest odds of surviving a collision.  In
cars at least.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jeff Palmer
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2014 7:48 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Kombi's last wishes

Ok I am super happy to know that my 85 has at least a little bit of
protection. I feel a bit guilty since having kids that it doesn't even have
airbags!

Jeff

> From: stuartmacm@gmail.com
> To: jpalmer@MYMTS.NET; vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: RE: Kombi's last wishes
> Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 17:26:10 -0700
>
> It's much less safe than your '85 Vanagon, which has a pretty solid front
structure.  It's certainly not good enough for today's crumple zone and air
bag requirement, but much better than just having a piece of sheet metal in
front of you to keep the wind out.  My daughter had a low speed crash in our
'78 van when she was 16 that nearly broke both her legs.  Of course I had
just put a new engine and transmission in it, but I was able to sell them
for about half of what they cost.
>
> Search www.youtube.com for "vanagon crash test" to see what I mean.
>
> Stuart
> '85 Westy
>
> Original message On Behalf Of Jeff Palmer:
>
> I know it's not legal and I would never ever do it but sheesh you guys are
ruining my dreaming.
> I would never sneak the car in mostly because it's not safe. And I'm a
peace, order and good government kind of guy!  But at the same time is it
more or less safe than my 85?
>
> Jeff
>
>
                                          =