Transportation safety crucial for churches

If you use a bus DEMAND that your drivers have a CDL with a passenger rating.

Keep up the vehicles maintenance and have records to prove it.

Get rid of your 15 passenger vans.

Ron,

We’ve been hearing for 20+ years that we have to get rid of 15 passenger vans. It simply not financially feasible for the majority of churches and completely unnecessary. There is no reason why a van cannot be operated safely, and anyone who doesn’t operate a van safely is not likely to operate busses any more safely.

Federal Regulators Warn of 15-Passenger Van Rollover Danger

The 15-passenger van is a popular conveyance for youth sports teams, church groups and summer activity organizers. N.H.T.S.A. research examined crash data from 2003 to 2007, showing that the more people these vans carry, the greater the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle crash. A 15-passenger van with 10 or more occupants has a rollover rate nearly three times higher than one carrying fewer than five people.In 2007, occupant fatalities in 15-passenger vans in all crashes increased nearly 20 percent over the previous year. But in vans that actually rolled over, fatalities had increased by 73 percent.A number of factors contribute to the higher risk of rollover in a 15-passenger van. Adding passengers and cargo moves the center of gravity higher and toward the rear of the vehicle, causing instability and the potential for drivers to lose control during emergency handling maneuvers. Electronic stability control systems are now required on all new vehicles, including 15-passenger vans. But older models may not have this preventative safety technology, which helps drivers maintain control of a vehicle when it enters a skid.

We took our college and career group to New Jersey’s Pine Barrens for a weekend campout. We took multiple church vans and cars. One of our young adults somehow got one of the vans jammed between pine trees … clipping the mirrors off. No one was injured. Seemed funny at the time.

Churches that continue to use 15-passenger vans to transport people are assuming an increased risk of liability unless they take specific steps to reduce the risk. In addition, churches probably will find it increasingly difficult to obtain insurance for these vehicles in the future. Here are two options that church leaders can consider:

Option #1.Get rid of 15-passenger vans and replace them with small school buses or other vehicles.

Option #2.Keep 15-passenger vans, either permanently or temporarily (until they can be replaced with small school buses), but strictly comply with all 10 recommendations made by the NHTSA in its safety advisory. This means, for example, that a 15-passenger van will never have more than nine occupants (including the driver).

There are many reasons why church leaders may prefer option #1, including the following:

Your church cannot obtain liability insurance for 15-passenger vans.

Your church does not or cannot comply with all 10 recommendations made by the NHTSA in its safety advisory.

Your church wants to reduce legal risk.

Your church has a 15-passenger van that is “used significantly” to transport children to or from school or school-related activities. Such a vehicle is a “nonconforming” vehicle, meaning that it meets the legal definition of a “school bus” but does not comply with stringent federal school bus regulations. While churches are not prohibited by federal law from using a nonconforming 15-passenger van as a school bus, they may be prevented from doing so by state law. Also, churches face an increased risk of liability if they use “nonconforming” 15-passenger vans as school buses.

Example. A church owns a 5-year-old 15-passenger van with an odometer reading of 80,000 miles. The van has the original tires, which are dangerously worn. The church board approves the use of the van for an overnight trip by the youth group. The youth pastor is the designated driver for the trip, and the van is loaded with 14 teenagers. Because there is no room to store luggage, the van roof is used for storage. In addition, the van pulls a large trailer. At 4 a.m., while the van is maintaining a speed of 70 miles per hour in a rain shower, the back wheels hydroplane and drop off the road. When the youth pastor attempts to drive the van back onto the road by jerking the steering wheel, he loses control and the van rolls over, killing 5 occupants. Some of the victims’ parents sue the church. Under these circumstances, it is possible that a court would conclude that the actions of the church were negligent. But, it is also possible that a court would conclude that the church—and church board—were grossly negligent as a result of their disregard of the NHTSA safety advisory and its recommendations. A finding of gross negligence is a very serious risk since it would expose the church to “punitive damages” that are not covered under its liability insurance policy. In addition, the members of the church board can be personally liable for their gross negligence. While state and federal laws provide uncompensated board members of nonprofit organizations with limited immunity from liability, these laws do not protect against gross negligence.

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

Simply add dual wheels to the back of the van. $1500 dollar cost, problem solved. Our church did.

John

I suspect the cost is over $3000, but well worth it.

The following costs are based on an actual dual-wheel retrofit completed on June 3, 2004:

$731.00 – 5 wheels & conversion kit from ArrowCraft
$604.66 – 2 Fenders from CoachCraft
$562.00 – 5 Tires & Conversion Kit Mounting
$217.40 – Repair shop charge for mounting & painting new fenders
=======
$2,115.06 TOTAL RETROFIT COST

I work for an airport shuttle company and we just replaced our 15-psngr van with a 12. We only had seating for 11 (including the driver) as we removed the last seat to have luggage room.

It may be that when it was full of psngrs and luggage, the center of gravity was lower. It appears from what I have read that the roll-over issue has to do with the center of gravity being so high, especially (as in Ron’s post above) when luggage is placed on the roof.