Deadly van crash: passenger vans raise wide array of safety concerns, feds say - WPTV.com
com shows inside a 2000 Dodge Ram van 3500, the same year, make and model as the passenger van that crashed this morning, killing 8 Fort Pierce church-goers and injuring 10 others on board. In 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA, started issuing warnings about 15- passenger van. Among those warnings, that the vans can be difficult to control in emergencies and lack adequate passenger protection, according to NHTSA. Kane has reported on the dangers of 15-passenger vans and the government's concerns about them. In 2001, NHTSA conducted a study to better assess the tendency of 15-passenger vans to roll over. As a result of that study, NHTSA concluded that 15-passenger van occupied with 10 or more passengers had three times the rollover ratio than those occupied with fewer than 10 passengers. "So the government was saying don't use them with more than 10 people in a vehicle yet they were sold in the market as a 15-passenger vehicle,” said Kane. Early Monday morning, a 15-passenger van was overloaded with 18 church-goers from the Independent Haitian Assembly of God in Fort Pierce. Source: www.wptv.com
