WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2002 -- Federal regulators and safety groups are proposing rules that would make 15-passenger vans less likely to roll over. It's thought that more than 400 people have died in the last decade during rollovers involving the popular vans, which are widely used to transport school athletic teams and church groups, among others.
The vans currently fall between the regulatory cracks. They're too big to be subject to passenger-vehicle standards and too small for the standards that apply to school buses. Compounding the problem, commercial driver's licenses are required only for vehicles that carry 16 or more passengers.
There are competing recommendations from different groups and agencies. Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) proposed making the vans more like school buses by requiring stronger brakes, more emergency exists, stronger roofs to help passengers survive a rollover and a reinforced fuel system less likely to rupture in an accident.
Another federal body, the National Transportation Safety Board, has recommend more extensive testing, better brakes and a rollover rating system similar to the one now in place for sedans and sport utility vehicles.
Public Citizen, meanwhile, is calling for a total redesign, saying the vans are simply not designed to be people haulers. The vans were designed to carry cargo and are fundamentally unsuitable for carrying people, Public Citizen president Joan Claybrook said. She is a former chair of NHTSA.
Claybrook said that, at the very least, if van owners plan to continue operating the vehicles they should install an extra set of rear wheels to make the vans more stable.
NHTSA contends that its proposed standards could be applied quickly but critics say the modifications would be expensive. Currently a 15-passenger van costs about $28,000 while a similar-sized school bus costs about $35,000.
On the other hand, vans don't last as long as buses and are much more costly to insure, because of their much higher accident rate. One insurance company, GuideOne Insurance, calls the vans "inherently unsafe" and discourages its clients, which includes schools, churches and nursing homes, from using them.
