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15-Passenger Van Rollover

You will never guess what is one of the most dangerous vehicles on the road in terms of rollover? It’s a vehicle commonly used by schools, day care centers, hotels, churches and scout troops. It's the 15-passenger van. Many insurers say they won't cover any more 15-passenger vans and several universities will no longer allow permit athletes to be transported in the vans.

These vans look like any other van, except they have been lengthened to hold more riders. Ford sells the most 15-passenger vans, but all the American car makers build a version of the van. The airport hotel is likely to pick you up in a 15-passenger van. At the day care center, the kids are climbing aboard. Often it’s the shuttle for the park & ride, the lift to the university. The YMCA drives them and the Post Office. When Disabled American Veterans go to lobby Congress, it’s the 15-passenger van that carries them.

There are about 500,000 of them on the road. Millions of Americans who ride in them don’t give them a thought until the unique character of the van is suddenly and tragically revealed. That’s what happened to the First Baptist Church of Piedmont, S.C., when it sent its children on a retreat. Their 15-passenger van rolled on the highway. Since 1990, at least 424 people have been killed and hundreds seriously injured in rollovers. Last spring, 12 members of the First Assembly of God Church in Burkeburnett, Texas, were on a shopping trip when their van rolled.

The problem, according to auto safety experts, is the design, the weight and balance of the van. On most models, the car manufacturers have used the same wheel base. But you can see on the 15-passenger model, the back end has been extended. That means when it's fully loaded, there's a seat with four passengers behind the rear axle. That tends to make the back end heavy, so that when there's a sudden swerve, the rear end swings out. The second, critical issue is that the van is top heavy. It has what engineers call a high center of gravity. The more people on board, the more top heavy it becomes. Milt Chase is an authority on rollovers. He’s an engineer who led the design of computer software that Ford uses to test rollover resistance. “I don’t think a vehicle with their rollover rate should be on the road,” he says of the 15-passenger van.

Ford builds the most 15-passenger vans, followed by Dodge. GM has just five percent of the market, and an even smaller fraction of the fatal rollovers. The GM van is a different design. The wheel base is longer. Engineers say that lowers the chance the van will skid sideways. But when loaded, the GM is still top heavy much like the Ford and Dodge. Ford calls its van the E-350. It started building them about 25 years ago. And according to a former Ford engineer, there was reason to question the van’s stability from the start.

If you or a loved have been injured in a 15-passenger van rollover, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified personal injury attorney.