Articles Posted in 15 Passenger Van Accidents

Two people are dead and two are critically injured after a 15-passenger van rollover accident Sept. 12 on Interstate 10 near Benson, Arizona. According to an Associated Press news report, the multi vehicle crash happened when the 15-passenger Dodge van lost control and overturned after its driver swerved to avoid a dog on the highway.

Two people — Richard Spettigue, 56, of Casa Grande and Brandon Spettigue, 22, of Surprise – who were following the van in an Acura sport utility vehicle died after a big rig hit them from behind. The SUV braked to avoid the passenger van. The van’s driver, 47-year-old Elizabeth Zazueta and cheerleader Tyler Cline, 16, both suffered critical injuries. Other passengers in the Dodge van including seven students and two coaches were also injured and taken to an area hospital. The students were all from San Manuel High School near Tucson. Sally Spettigue, 41 the driver of the SUV and a passenger in the big rig were also hospitalized.

My heart goes out to the Spettigue family who lost so much in an instant. Let’s also keep the cheerleader and the coach who are fighting for their lives in our prayers.

It is unbelievable that high school administrators would put their beloved students and coaches in a 15-passenger van, notorious for its tendency to roll over and cause catastrophic injuries and fatalities. Despite repeated warnings from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, community groups and organizations, high schools, colleges and even child care centers continue to transport groups of people in these “death traps.”
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One person died and five suffered severe injuries in a 15-passenger van rollover accident, when the van carrying a church group from Ohio blew a tire and overturned on the southbound Interstate 20/59 on the afternoon of Aug. 15. According an article in the Tuscaloosa News. The driver of the van, 45-year-old Diane L. Hill of Euclid, Ohio, died in the crash. The five injured passengers who were transported to an area hospital were: Obadiah Miliner, 68; Patricia Lewis, 62; and Terrell Jackson, 39, Lillian Robinson, 55 and Michael Miliner, 35. All were either members or clergy from the Unity Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio.

The 15-passenger van was reportedly carrying only six people, all headed to an annual church event in Mississippi. The driver of the van reportedly lost control of the vehicle after a tire blew. The van rolled over and hit the median.

My heart goes out to the victims of this horrible accident. I offer my condolences to Hill’s family and my wishes and prayers for a speedy recovery go out to the injured victims.

The unfortunate fact is that this is an accident, which could have been prevented, that statistically it was an accident waiting to happen. Once that tire blew at freeway speeds, Hill had almost no chance to keep the van from rolling.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued several safety alerts about the dangers of the 15-passenger van.

My partner, Brian Chase, a national expert on 15 passenger van rollover crashes, has consistently maintained that these vehicles are dangerously unstable and cause accidents. Among the design flaws of these 15 passenger vans is that they use stadium style seating where passengers in the back are sitting at a slightly higher elevation than people in front of them. This causes the center of gravity in 15 passenger vans to move even higher than when the van is empty. So in the event of a tire blowout, these vans could become unsteady and roll over, especially when the driver is trying to overcorrect or take evasive action.
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Two people were killed in a fifteen passenger van accident in Medina County, southwest of San Antonio yesterday, according to an Examiner.com news article. 13 others were reportedly injured in the accident.

Two Fort Worth area residents, 55-year-old Edilberto Aguilar and a 15-year-old boy Jose Sanchez were killed in the 15-passenger van crash, said Lt. Steven Tellez; a spokesman for the San Antonio based Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). The van was southbound on Interstate-35, carrying a full complement of 15 people, when the right rear tire blew out. Francisco Castro, the driver lost control and the van hit the interstate’s median, rolled over and came to a stop.

Once that tire blew, the driver, Francisco Castro, had no chance of controlling this van. The 15 passenger van rollover accident was not his fault. It was the van manufacturers and possibly the tire makers fault.

The 13 people injured in this fifteen passenger van accident were taken to San Antonio’s University Hospital. Dora Quiroga speaking for the Hospital said their condition ranged from stable to critical.

Of the thousands of traffic accident cases we have handled, the fifteen passenger van cases have been the most catastrophic and heart braking. These vans should have never been built without dual rear wheels. Commercial drivers’ licenses should be required to drive these vans because they are so unstable and dangerous.

My heart goes out to the families of those injured and I offer my deepest condolences for their loss. And I am mad as #$**. This was a needless loss of life and needless injuries that I attribute to corporate profits over public safety.
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Our firm recently won an out-of-court settlement in an auto defect claim involving a Ford E-350 15-passenger van accident. We represented Jose Estrada and Rita Cruz Quintero on behalf of the estate of Jessica Estrada, their daughter, who suffered fatal injuries in the May 27, 2006 accident. The settlement amount is confidential.

The accident occurred when Jose Estrada, who was driving the 2005 Ford 15-passenger van lost control of the vehicle when a rear Goodyear tire blew, according to a police report. The van carried several members of Estrada’s family and they were coming back from a family trip to San Diego. The van rolled over crushing the roof causing fatal injuries to Jessica Estrada.

There have been repeated warnings about 15-passenger vans from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). We alleged in our lawsuit that Ford knowingly designed and manufactured the Ford E-350 15-passenger van with defective roof supports. The auto maker did not use an advanced electronic stability system when that technology was readily available. What’s more – they used tires that were defectively designed and manufactured by Goodyear!
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A church van crash in Florida is yet again raising concerns about the use of unsafe 15-passenger vans by churches, schools and community organizations to transport small groups of people. On Sunday night a 15-passenger van crash in Ocala left 12 passengers, all from a church group, injured. One of them is still in the hospital with critical injuries, according to an MSNBC news report.

The accident reportedly happened in the northbound lanes of the I-75. The driver lost control of the vehicle, which landed on its side. Firefighters had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate one passenger whose leg was trapped between the ground and the van, according to the report.

It’s a miracle that no one was fatally injured in this crash. For many years now, the federal government has repeatedly issued warnings that these 15-passenger vans are nothing short of death traps. Yet community groups, universities, childcare centers and schools continue to use them. Some of them may not know the hazards, but most groups roll the dice and operate the vans anyway because they are cheaper and can conveniently transport these groups, but at what cost? Some church groups are now switching to more expensive minivans, which is great. But there are still too many of these 15-passenger vans out there, which in itself is cause for concern.
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Last week, college wrestler Broc Pigorch and his team were on their way to participate in a tournament in Iowa. Pigorch never made it because, as officials would announce later, the team was riding in one of the most dangerous vehicles still plying our roadways – the 15-passenger van.

According to an article posted on a local TV news channel’s Web site, the team was traveling in a 15-passenger van when they swerved to avoid hitting a car that suddenly braked. Now, other athletic teams are wondering if they are taking a risk by putting their teams in one of these vans, which has been well-known among safety experts as “a death trap on wheels.” Well, all these college coaches can stop wondering because – yes, 15-passenger vans are big-time death traps!

This tragedy was probably overlooked by national news media because it happened around the same time when seven members of a basketball team and their teacher died when their 15-passenger Ford van crashed on an icy Canadian freeway. These vans are unstable, badly designed and simply dangerous. They should not be on the road in the first place.
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Canadian officials are investigating a tragic 15-passenger van crash that killed eight out of 12 people in the vehicle — seven members of a high school basketball team and their teacher. According to a news article in Canada’s CBC News, the Ford Club wagon fishtailed and collided with a big rig Saturday when the Bathurst High School team was returning home from a game.

Another CBC News article also points out that the Ford van, which was traveling on a snowed-on highway, was not fitted with snow tires, but regular or all-season tires. Transport Canada, a national regulatory agency, is not only investigating the accident, but also reviewing the idea of creating a new classification for 15-passenger vans, that will include tougher safety standards, CBC reported.

A public funeral is being planned for the seven students. According to a Sports Illustrated article, all of the deceased students were between 15 and 18 years of age. Most were ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead on the scene. Four people, who were injured, including the driver who was the team’s coach, are expected to recover, the article stated.

Eight children were injured – one critically – in a 15-passenger van crash in Queens. The students were being transported to school illegally because the bus driver did not have the required license, according to an article in the New York Daily News.

Nine-year-old Rebecca Frazier suffered severe head injuries and underwent surgery after the crash while seven other children suffered minor injuries, the newspaper reported. The van’s driver, 60-year-old Gene Boyd, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, the article said.

New York State prohibits the use of 15 passenger vans to transport school children. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has repeatedly issued alerts about the dangers of these vans, which are still used by some schools, universities and church groups to transport larger groups of people. Click here for a complete report by the NHTSA outlining the danger of these vans. Also on this site is streaming video showing crash test results. We would be surprised if anyone gets into one of these death traps after watching these videos.
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Five people, including three children, died Saturday afternoon after their 1999 Ford 15-passenger van crashed on the Interstate 69 in Indianapolis. According to a news article in The Star Press newspaper, officials investigating the accident believe that a blown tire started the accident sequence. The three children who died ranged in age from infant to 12 years old and in addition to the five dead, 11 others were injured, the newspaper reported.

The accident happened when the van’s left tire blew. The vehicle crossed over the median into the other side and rolled over. No other vehicles were involved. Four people were ejected the report said. Apparently, some of the children were in car seats, but investigators don’t know if everyone was wearing his or her seat belt. All victims were transported to local hospitals.

According to another report in The Indianapolis Star, some of the victims came from the Amish community in the Fort Wayne area, not far from where the accident happened. The report also said the van could’ve had as many as 17 passengers. This accident happened only about 20 miles away from the site of an April 2006 crash between a Taylor university van and a big rig that killed four students, a university employee and injured five other people.
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One person died and several people were injured in a 15-passenger van accident in the Lee County area of Wisconsin this week, according to a news report on WISTV’s Web site. According to the report, the 1992 Ford van filled with members of the Prayer and Faith Temple in Hopkins, Wisconsin overturned on the freeway after its left tire blew. Officials say the van flipped several times. Several passengers were ejected from the vehicle and were transported to area hospitals.

One woman, believed to be in her 40s, died in the crash, the television station reported. According to EMT reports, at least 18 people were crammed into the 15-passenger van. Sixteen out of the 18, of which two were children, were taken to the hospital with injuries, the article says.

It is hard to believe that church groups and community organizations are still using these “death trap” 15-passenger vans. It is a disgrace that with all the information that is now available about these defective vehicles that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not mandated these vans off our roads. It is shameful that NHTSA still allows them to be sold to the unsuspecting public.

Why are religious organizations and schools still using these “death traps” when there is so much information and evidence showing how unsafe these vehicles are? Any organization that still uses these 15-passenger vans for the transportation of people must be held accountable for the consequences of their choices. The maker of this van must be held accountable as well. The maker is fully aware of the dangerous propensities of these vans. Just visit these Web sites http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/studies/15PassVans/15PassCustomerAdvisory.htm and http://www.15-passenger-van-accidents.com/recalls.shtml to see how dangerous these vehicles are.
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