Ryan's GTI Wreck at Waterfest: The Real Story

["George & Deanna Achorn" <coolidge@tidalwave.net>]

Hey,
    I saw this on the GTI list, and thought I would pass it along.

Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 14:47:18 EDT
From: A2GTI8V@aol.com
Subject: Re: [gti-vr6] The *Real* Story of Ryan's Accident..

After reading about all of the stuff said about Ryan's accident there is a
lot
of bull shit that is being said. I drove up to Waterfest with Ryan from
Tampa,
FL along with my brother Justin, the trip took about 20hrs. We did it in 2
days and stopped by VW Sport and EIP.. I was with Ryan the whole night that
it
happened almost everyone one there was drinking beer. But Ryan *does not*
drink that's why he blew straight 0's when the cop gave him a breathalyzer
test. There were two guys from Maine who we talked to a lot for the few hrs.
we were there. And one had a VR6 GTI it was around 11:30 when Ryan took them
over to his car to show them his sound system.. They were in the car for
about
3mins I walked over and was talking to Ryan and the guy from Maine said "hey
can you take us for a spin" so Ryan said sure they left the parking lot down
a
road that Ryan had only been down once before he ripped through 1st, and 2nd
to show the guys what the turbo can do.. Then he was out of sight and
couldn't
hear them anymore.. A couple of mins. later one of the guys came running
down
the street saying "he wrecked the car" I was the first to hear what he said
so
I ran to Les from Eurotech and told him he, hopped in his New Beetle and
went
down to the site of the accident leaving me behind so I told a guy to take
me
down there. There must have been 75 people running a half mile down the
street
from the hotel parking lot.. I saw Ryan to make sure he was OK then saw his
car up on the curb with his rear tires still on the street and the
transformer
on fire. It took about 20 of us to drag his car off the curb and into safety
because the tranny was locked in gear and still is. Somebody put the fire
out
with a fire extinguisher then secs. later it started sparking and burst in
flames again. So someone called the fire department. they came 15mins. later
and sprayed water on the transformer (dumb asses) and blew up another one
down
the street so then all the electric went out in the business park. Then the
cops came and interrogated Ryan for about an hour. His car was towed to a
local gas station. Were we picked it up around 2 o'clock on the day of the
show the passenger side got barely hit by the tree just missing the head
light
the drivers side fender got crushed, the roof dent alittle in one place on
each side and there is a golfball size hole in the tranny and the
intercooler
and lower piping of the turbo system is screwed. The cop we saw later that
told us that the price on the damage was 75,000.. Les said the damage to
Ryan's car was around $6,000 and shouldn't be hard to fix.. The important
thing is that nobody got hurt in this accident.. Ryan got 3 tickets: failure
to keep right, driving without due care, and improper speed ( around 60 in a
50)... Also Ryan has been off the list for more then a month now...

Ryan Welty
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