> The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crash
> tested one of our beloved bricks at 35 mph head-on into a fixed barrier.

> Actually that's not a very good test. You will find that there are very
few fixed > barriers getting in your way.

An '85 Westy I bought for parts last year had just such an accident - it
went through a building at about 40 mph.  The van was totaled, but the
driver/passenger area was completely untouched.  The crumple zones worked
exactly as designed, and the driver "walked away" with nothing more than
bruises.  The building, however, didn't fare so well - it was closed for
nearly a month.

Let's not kid ourselves; a modern vehicle with front and side airbags, etc.
is probably much safer than a Vanagon in a major collision.  But I'd rather
be in my Vanagon in the event of such a collision than almost any passenger
car of its vintage.

-Ron Salmon
 The Bus Depot
 http://www.busdepot.com