Reality television strikes again. The show NASCAR Angels has a crew running around the country repairing cars for people on a three-day deadline. But a woman in California who appealed to the television show to repair her family van claims she has been put through some amazing trials and tribulations and ultimately has ended up with a broken van. Making matters ever worse, the van was used to move kids around to do volunteer work in the local community. Now it acts as a storage bin because no one can seem to fix the thing and it’s being reported that the show has essentially washed its hands of the matter.
Long story short, the van’s troubled post-production life actually began before production stopped. According to a NewsObserver.com story, Debra Yocum’s husband sat in the back of the van during the filming of the final episode and fell over backwards as the seat was not bolted to the floor. The van was sent back to the repair facility where it sat for months, only to be returned. It was driven a half mile before it died again. The story says that three motors have been installed in the thing. Maybe an exorcism would help.
The production company is now saying that the problem with the van is related to the transmission, which, shockingly, was not “part of the original repair,” to quote the story. The rest of the experience appears to have been a complete horror with the van bouncing from shop to shop for weeks at a time, being returned not completed, causing personal injuries, etc. It reads like a work of fiction but for the Yocums it appears that the “reality” of reality television has really left its mark.
