Personal Injury Law

Van Accidents

Large vans are frequently used to transport college and other school sports teams, commuters, students, day care children, the elderly, and church groups. The accident rates for these vans are alarming.

According to the National Safety Transportation Board, between 1994 and 2004, there were 1,512 fatal crashes involving 15-passenger vans. In 2004 alone, 120 occupants of 15-passenger vans died in crashes involving these vehicles A total of 642 of these were single-vehicle crashes and 515 of the vehicles rolled over. More than half of the 15-passenger vans involved in single-vehicle accidents rolled over, compared to one-third of passenger cars.

A major problem with 15-passenger vans is that their tires are often underinflated, leading to higher tire temperatures, faster tire deterioration, and diminished driving stability. Adding passengers and cargo causes the center of gravity to move upward and rearward, increasing a vehicles tendency to roll over and increasing the potential for the driver to lose control in emergency maneuvers.

Fifteen-passenger vans are 3 times more likely to roll over when loaded with more than 10 passengers. In just two 15-passenger van crashes alone, in North Carolina and Texas in 2001, a teenager and four senior citizens died when left rear tires failed, the drivers lost control of the vehicles, and the vans rolled over several times.

Front and back tires may require different inflation pressures and these pressures may be higher than those of passenger car tires. Car tire pressures are typically the same for all 4 tires. However, van tires are very different with typically up to 50 lbs. in the front tires and up to 0 lbs. in the rear tires.

Full post as published by Georgia Injury Lawyer Blog on September 21, 2008 (boomark / email).