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.

Nine Killed as Utah College Van Rolls Over

Sept 27, 2005. TREMONTON, Utah. A Utah State University van overturned on a highway about 65 miles north of Salt Lake City, killing eight students and an instructor, authorities said. Two other students were injured. The 11 occupants of the van were ejected as the vehicle rolled four times on Interstate 84 near Tremonton, said Trooper Jeff Nigbur.

Key points to the Utah rollover story:

• Nine people died in a 15-passenger 1994 Dodge RAM van rollover accident.
• The left rear tire failed due to a blow out or de-tread. This happens in 80% of the rollover incidents, even on tires, like this one, that only have 16,000 miles on them. As indicated in our FAQ,at least 50% of the weight is distributed to the left-rear tire under normal load conditions, causing the left rear tire to wear out 3x faster than the the other three tires on the van.

There were 11 passengers in the van. Most likely, the rear bench seat was removed, decreasing the number of passenger seats, but providing more room for luggage. There are false rumors spread by insurance companies that removing the the back bench seat reduces the chance of rollover. In fact, the NHTSA has always said that 10 or more passengers increases the rollover risk by 500%. Removing the back seat does NOT make the van safer, but in fact, could increase the instability of the van.

• The roof collapsed, so even if the occupants were wearing seatbelts, anybody sitting on the right side of the van would have been crushed. In other words, wearing seatbelts would not have saved thier lives!
• The same University had a similar rollover accident in 2001 in a 15-passenger Dodge van similar to the one involved in this accident. In the 2001 accident, six members of the University volleyball team were injured. Most likely, the families of the victims WILL sue the University because the school had prior knowledge of the risks associated with the vans and willfully put these students in harms way. This will result in millions of dollars lost by the school and their insurance company will cancel their policy, increasing costs for years to come.
• All of this could have been prevented, but someone at the University made the decision to continue using these vans, even after their 2001 rollover experience.

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.