Large passenger vans pose rollover risk

According to a study of vehicle safety published on the website for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration there is a big risk involved with 15 passenger vans. These large vans became much more common over the past decade. Between 1990 and 2001 over 1,000 people were killed in fatal crashes involving these large vans. Although, NHTSA implies that improper tire inflation may have contributed to the wrecks, the very design of these behemoths is a risk. When these 15 passenger vans are loaded fully with 10 or more occupants, they are nearly 3 times more likely to roll over than when lightly loaded.

This safety problem with 15 passenger vans reminds me about the major rail carriers moving railroad workers from location to location. When a railroad worker has to be brought back to his original work site because of hours of services laws, it’s called dead heading. Usually the major railroads like Norfolk Southern and CSX will use non-company owned transportation firms to transport their workers in this way. We have been hired many times in the past by railroad workers who were hurt in collisions or other injuries when being dead headed in large vans. Often these large van companies do not do a great job of maintaining their equipment. Railroad workers and others whose companies give them rides in these large vans should be aware of this rollover risk and be sure to buckle up when an occupant in one of them.