Revenge of the Turkeys! (or how turkeys nearly killed our son!)

23 November 2010 - one day pre-Thanksgiving

Andy was on his way to College in Adrian when:

It went something like this:

Andy was following another car at a safe distance. He saw her apply her brakes and noticed wild turkeys crossing the road in front of her. The turkeys then took flight, in front the the other car, and there was an entire flock of them. He looked up at them for just a moment and when he looked back the other car had all but stopped on the highway. He couldn't stop in time. He rear-ended the car going about 40 MPH. The van's airbags deployed. The other car's rear-end was damaged but was drivable. The van is "totaled" and worth nothing because we didn't carry collision on it. (1996 Dodge Caravan) It's at a towing place in Adrian and we will sign it off for scrap. Andy has minor burns and bruises on both hands, his right ear lobe, and a bruise on the top of his leg. His right ear rings. It's all from the air bag, not the crash itself. A few MPHs more and things could have been really bad. We feel very fortunate nobody was badly hurt and also the woman driving the other vehicle was very nice. She completely understood how it happened and both she and Andy blamed the turkeys. Must've been "Thanksgiving Turkey Revenge" a bit early. Also, Andy had an omen of what was to come. If you look at the photo, there is a small bird lodged in the grille of the van. It flew up in front of him earlier in the trip. It was a warning! Oh, if he only would've recognized it! (click on the photo to enlarge)

Now we have to decide what to replace the van with.