Articles

Lake Geneva Car Accident Lawyer

The Dangers of 15-Passenger Vans

15-passenger vans have long been viewed to be among the most lethal vehicles on the road today. These vans are involved in rollover accidents more frequently than all other vehicles. It is in your best interest never to set foot in one of these vans.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) calculates that, when 15-passenger vans are involved in single-vehicle accidents, they roll more than fifty percent of the time. This is compared to a mere one third of the time for all other vehicles. Eighty-one percent of all 15-passenger van fatalities occur in single-vehicle rollover accidents.

Recently, there has been a disturbing trend of a variety of groups charged with transporting large numbers of individuals using these 15-passenger vans. These groups include church groups, day cares, private schools, and sports teams. This is largely due to the savings in cost when comparing a van to a school bus. In fact, all three makers of 15-passenger vans have at one point or another marketed their vans for these exact uses.

Unfortunately, this means that children, among others, are being transported in vans that met the “federal definition of a bus but not the federal occupant crash protection standards of school busses.” The National Transportation Safety Board issued this warning in 1999.

Following an increase in the number of fatalities, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated the causes of the accidents. They found that the more passengers that are in the van, the more likely it is to overturn. The main problem is that the vans have a high center of gravity to begin. When more people get into the van, the center of gravity is shifted up and to the rear of the van. This creates a tendency for the van to fishtail which then increases the chances of the driver losing control of the vehicle and the van rolling.

If you have been injured in a 15-passenger van accident, please contact the Lake Geneva personal injury lawyers of Habush, Habush, & Rottier at 1-800-275-1729 to discuss your case and to determine your legal options.