Type of van in fatal N.B. crash banned from use by N.S. schools

The van that went out of control on a New Brunswick highway, resulting in eight deaths, is in a class of vehicle criticized by United States overnment agencies as lacking stability in emergencies. chools in Nova Scotia are banned from using the vehicles and the U.S. overnment has issued safety warnings about them. David White, director f the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board’s motor carrier division, aid the agency moved to end the use of 15-seat vans by schools ollowing two fatal crashes in the province in the 1980s. “We set out to create an alternative method of transport that would be safe,” he said.

In a 1984 accident, four members of a hockey team were killed when the van they were travelling in slid into the rear of a transport truck on a slippery road in Amherst, N.S. White believes Nova Scotia is the only province that prohibits the large vans from being used for school outings. The accident early on Saturday morning involved a 1997 Ford Club Wagon, which has 15 seats. It collided with a transport truck outside Bathurst, killing seven members of a high school basketball team and the wife of the team’s
coach, who was driving the van. He was among four others who survived the accident.

On Monday police released more details of what happened in Saturday’s accident. RCMP Cpl. Dan Melanson said the van’s right-side wheels slipped onto the shoulder of the road and there may have been an “over-correction” before it collided with the truck. “The van then would have come into a skid sideways, crossing the centre
line and with the tractor-trailer heading southbound, that is where the collision occurred.”

Police are still investigating but they have said slippery road conditions were a factor in the accident. They said there was no wrongdoing. The RCMP said the van had all-season radials but not winter tires on it.

In the United States, schools are banned from buying or leasing new 15-seat vans but can use older ones, said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The type of van that went out of control outside Bathurst belongs to a class of vehicle that was criticized five years ago by national transportation safety agencies in the United States as lacking stability in emergencies.

In 2002, a National Transportation Safety Board study in the U.S. said the vehicles “are involved in a higher number of single-vehicle accidents involving rollovers than are other passenger vehicles.” The board said the vans, when loaded with passengers, become less stable and are harder to control in emergency manoeuvres. “Nearly loading a 15-passenger van causes the centre of gravity to move rearward and upward, which increases its rollover propensity,” said the summary at the time.

Tyson said there have been a number of consumer advisories following fatal accidents involving college students. “The administration has issued a series of advisories regarding the rollover risk associated with 15-passenger vans,” he said. “They’ve occurred over the past seven or eight years.”

Authorities in New Brunswick haven’t said if the van involved in the Bathurst crash rolled. The driver has yet to make a public statement about the accident. John McLaughlin, superintendent of the Bathurst-area District 15 school
board, said he wasn’t aware of the prohibition in Nova Scotia or of the U.S. safety reports. “We’ve never considered that. But I can tell you right now, my head isn’t on any of that stuff right now,” he said. “There will be time for
us to be thinking about those things. It’s just not right now.”

A public affairs manager at Ford sent an e-mail response when asked about the National Transportation Safety Board study and safety issues that have been raised in the past. Of course, if asked, we will co-operate fully with the authorities on any future investigations into the accident,” said Gina Gehlert.

Stephanie Simonsen, regional director of the Boys and Girls Clubs in Nova Scotia, said New Brunswick needs to reconsider allowing the transport of students in 15-seat vehicles. Simonsen said her group has been phasing the vehicles out of use since reading the U.S. warnings. “When I saw the announcement (of the accident), I turned to my husband and I said, ‘I bet that was a 15-passenger van’ and … I felt so badly,” she said Monday. “I don’t think they should be allowed, but the other thing we need to do is educate the public.”

Some insurance companies in the United States will no longer insure community agencies that use 15-passenger vans, said an executive with the YM-YWCA in Maine. Rob Reeves, chief executive of the YM-YWCA in Bangor, said he phased
out its five 15-seat vans on the advice of the Redwood Insurance Co. of North Carolina two years ago. “Our automobile insurance carriers started an educational process three years ago,” he said. “The extended-length vehicles aren’t meant to
transport students. “The National Transportation Safety Board said when you have injuries, unfortunately you have catastrophic injuries.”

New Brunswick Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said Monday the province has been focused on helping a community in need, and has not yet considered policies or equipment issues related to the accident. “I don’t particularly want to jump to any conclusions until we see the accident report and we get all the particular details about how this came to happen,” he said. Lamrock said there’s never any “absolute guarantee” that an accident won’t occur. “But we’re going to have a look and we will learn in every way we can about making those choices as risk-free as possible.”

While no other province in Canada has banned the vehicles, the Alberta government says their use is not recommended by schools. The position of the government of Alberta is that students are safest in school buses, and if not school buses then a multi-function activity bus, which is essentially the same thing but it’s not yellow and black, and it doesn’t have the flashing lights, but it’s built and designed to be virtually identical to a school bus,” said Dennis Bell, the director
of vehicle safety for Alberta Infrastructure and Transportation. He added that a provincial group called the School Bus Safety Committee has specifically recommended that 15-passenger vans not be used, and said that he doesn’t think many schools use the vehicles. There’s an awareness in the school bus transportation community that these vehicles are not optimal,” he said.

—————-
Sameen Amin
Associate Producer
CBC News: Today
1.416.205.5084
sameen_amin@cbc.ca

Tire blowout suspected in crash that killed 5

By The Associated Press
Monday, October 22, 2007 9:50 PM EDT

INDIANAPOLIS – Federal regulators have warned for years that overcrowded 15-passenger vans or those with improperly inflated tires can pose a higher risk of rollovers.

Police say a tire blowout may have caused a van carrying 16 Amish passengers to flip over on Interstate 69 near Muncie Sunday, killing three children and two adults and injuring 11 others.

A hole was found in the tire, which could have caused it to deflate and the driver to lose control of the van, said Sgt. Rod Russell with the Indiana State Police.

The van’s owner and driver was Melvin Fisher, who died in the accident along with his wife and three children. Four other children in the family survived, as did seven members of another family traveling in the van.

It is not clear whether anyone was wearing seat belts, police said.

The Amish families were traveling home from a church function. Although Amish generally shun modern conveniences, some members drive vehicles.

State police said five Rockville family members were killed in

the accident: Melvin Fisher, 39; his wife, Savilla Fisher, whose age was not known; and their sons, Ruben, 16; Christian, 11; and 1-year-old Eli.

Seven members of Steve Lengacher’s family were injured.

‘‘All we can believe is that the Lord had his hand on it and that his ways are not our ways,” Lengacher told WISH-TV in Indianapolis. ‘‘I would not choose this way, but his ways are as far above ours, as the heavens are from the earth.”

Californian Mark Smith’s 17-year-old daughter died in a van rollover in 2002.

‘‘I really feel for them,” Smith said. ‘‘I know what they’re going through.”

Smith now runs a group called Van Angels, which aims to save lives by educating people about what he considers the dangers of 15-passenger vans, which are popular with church groups, sports teams and others who need to transport large groups of people.

A 2005 study from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 74 percent of all 15-passenger vans had at least one tire that was improperly inflated. In comparison, about 40 percent of passengers cars had an improperly inflated tire.

State police were still examining the van in the I-69 crash.

The highway safety agency has also found that when the vans have 10 or more passengers, they have a rollover rate that is nearly three times higher than when they have fewer than five occupants.

Russ Rader, a spokesman with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, noted that the vans have a higher center of gravity than cars.

‘‘As you add people, the center of gravity gets even higher,” he said.

Van manufacturers had added stability control to help prevent rollovers. And safety officials also stress the importance of wearing seat belts in large vans.

The safety agency says between 1990 and 2003, nearly 80 percent of those who died in rollovers in the 15-passenger vans were unbuckled. In contrast, 91 percent of those wearing seat belts in fatal, single-vehicle rollovers in the vans survived.

The agency has tried to raise safety awareness in the large vans in recent years following some deadly accidents.

Church Van Crash Along Interstate 80 Injures 20

Church Van Crash Along Interstate 80 Injures 20
Children Injured When Van Blows Tire

POSTED: 6:16 pm CDT April 29, 2007
UPDATED: 8:57 am CDT April 30, 2007
OMAHA, Neb. — A church van filled with children crashed on Interstate 80 west of Lincoln Sunday, critically injuring several passengers in the vehicle.

Nebraska State Patrol troopers at the scene said the left rear tire blew out on the 1987 van. The vehicle rolled several times before landing in a ditch east of Seward on Interstate 80. The accident happened at about 2 p.m. Sunday.

The van was carrying 20 members of the Sudanese Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Omaha. There were two adults, and 18 children on board.

The State Patrol reported that three of the passengers were sent by helicopter to a Lincoln hospital with life-threatening injuries. Three more passengers were transported by ambulance with critical injuries.

The other 13 people injured also are being treated at hospitals with injuries not considered to be life-threatening, authorities said.

Troopers reported that many of the passengers were thrown from the van. The vehicle was equipped with seat belts, but troopers did not know if the belts were used.

The crash closed eastbound lanes of I-80 for more than two hours.

Copyright 2007 by KETV.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Van threw 8 children as it rolled when hit

Article published May 23, 2006, Source: TheBlade.com

Status of 3 is critical day after fatal crash

By JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

COLUMBUS GROVE, Ohio – Eight of the 10 young people riding in a church van that was struck by a car Sunday were thrown from the vehicle when it overturned, investigators said yesterday. Jasmin Wickard, 14, of Leipsic was killed in the crash, which occurred about 4:45 p.m. on State Rt. 65, a mile north of Columbus Grove. Jasmin’s half-sister, Shelby Davis, 12, of Leipsic remained in critical condition at Toledo Hospital, while Kimberly Herren, 15, of Defiance was in critical condition at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center, Toledo.

Two other passengers in the van – Anisha Minjarez, 14, of Leipsic and Janelle Benroth, 22, of Columbus Grove – were in fair condition yesterday at Lima Memorial Hospital. Trooper Mark Nelson of the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Lima post said the van from Harvest Assembly of God Church in West Leipsic overturned when a car driven by Aloysius Warnecke, 91, of Columbus Grove failed to stop for a stop sign at Putnam County Road O and struck the van’s rear left side. “He stated that he had stopped, but I have witnesses’ statements saying he did not stop,” the trooper said. “He may have slowed down, but it appears to me he rolled through it.” No citations have been issued in the case, and Trooper Nelson said the case would be turned over to the Putnam County prosecutor once the investigation is completed. The intersection is “wide open,” he said, adding that there did not appear to be any other factors, such as alcohol or excessive speed, that played into the accident. “He just didn’t see it,” Trooper Nelson said.

Texas lawyer Jeff Wigington said the crash was one of two involving 15-passenger vans that occurred Sunday. He has litigated more than a dozen cases involving the extra-large vans, arguing that they are unstable and roll over when they shouldn’t, based on the design of the vehicle. “People are still largely unaware of the danger associated with these vans,” Mr. Wigington said. “The word doesn’t seem to be getting out, but every year about this time, my phone starts ringing because people start taking longer trips in their 15-passenger vans and they start rolling over.”

More than 700 fatal rollover accidents have occurred in the last 20 years involving such vans, the design of which has remained unchanged since the 1970s, Mr. Wigington said. In 2003, a 10-year-old girl was killed when a 15-passenger van from Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Lima went out of control and overturned on I-75 on its way to Findlay.

Representatives of Harvest Assembly of God Church in West Leipsic couldn’t be reached for comment. Leipsic Local Schools Superintendent Alice Dewar said four of the children involved in the crash attended Leipsic Elementary, including Jasmin Wickard, who was an eighth-grader. Her half-sister, Shelby Davis, is a fifth grader, and Jessica Wickard, 13, who was treated at Lima Memorial, is a seventh grader. Anisha Minjarez is in eighth grade. “We had grief counselors here this morning,” Ms. Dewar said. “Our students obviously were very upset, but they have dealt with it as best they could.” She said news of the accident reached school officials shortly after the high school graduation ceremony concluded Sunday. “It had all gone off without a hitch,” Ms. Dewar said. “Everyone was relieved that was all over. Our responsibility, as far as the district was concerned, was done for the day, and then we had this happen.”

The driver of the van, John Nieto, 23, of Leipsic was treated at St. Rita’s Ambulatory Care Center in Glandorf, where Mr. Warnecke and his passenger, Anna Marie Warnecke, 86, also were treated. Three other passengers in the van were treated at area hospitals: Eli Gable, 13, of Ottawa was treated at Lima Memorial; Sarah Conn, 16, of Ottawa was treated at St. Rita’s Ambulatory Care Center, and Taylor Roblas, 14, of Ottawa, was discharged yesterday from St. Vincent.

Contact Jennifer Feehan
at jfeehan@theblade.com
or 419-353-5972.

Ford settles in 15-passenger van rollover

LYNN BREZOSKY
Associated Press
LAREDO, Texas – Ford Motor Co. has settled a lawsuit over a van-rollover crash that killed three young missionaries in Mexico in 2002.

The case was the first involving Ford Motor Co.’s 15-passenger E-350 Econoline van to a reach trial in six years.

The confidential settlement was negotiated late Friday, after two days of testimony.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Jeffrey G. Wigington, said his clients were pleased with the settlement and planned to use a “significant portion” of it to establish a fund for retrofitting vans owned by churches, sports teams, and other nonprofit groups to add two additional wheels.

Wigington said evidence including Ford’s own research showed that the vans would be less likely to roll over if they had six wheels instead of the standard four. He told the jury that Ford had created a “van rollover epidemic.”

A Ford spokeswoman blamed the accident on tire failure.

“Our condolences go out to those involved, but this accident was caused by a tread separation,” said the spokeswoman, Kathleen Vokes. “Under the circumstances of this accident, any van, pickup or sport-utility vehicle would have rolled over.”

Bethany Bosarge, 16, of Peachtree, Ga.; Malori Smith, 17, of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; and Jonnathan Lomeli, 23, of Laredo, died in the June 2002 crash. The members of Victorious Christian Harvesters Church were returning from a mission to Mexico City when they wrecked on a highway near Monterrey, Mexico.

During opening statements Thursday, Ford defense lawyers blamed the accident on a tire losing its tread, which they said caused the wheel to dig into roadside dirt and send the van tumbling into a 7-foot ravine.

Michelin North America, which also was named in the suit, settled with the plaintiffs on Feb. 21. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

Wigington told the jury he would prove that the van rolled over because of several design defects, not the tire. He said Ford erred by putting too many seats in the cargo van without changing the design and failing to put it through sufficient testing.

During the trial, jurors heard the mother of Bethany Bosarge describe flying to Mexico to find their daughter brain-dead and on a respirator.

Mark Smith, father of Malori Smith, told The Associated Press that he would work to make similar large vans safer by launching the Van Angels website.

“It didn’t end for us,” he said. “It’s the first step, a new beginning, a new journey … Our goal is to make a significant dent in this problem.”

A half-million of the long vans are estimated to be on the nation’s roads. From 1990 to 2000, 268 15-passenger vans were involved in rollovers, resulting in 424 deaths and hundreds of serious injuries.

The last case involving the E-350 Econoline van to go to trial was in 1999, when a Kentucky jury awarded $20 million to plaintiffs who sued over a 1995 wreck that killed three.