Randy Barnhart

New Video on Dangerous 15-Passenger Vans

KENSTV in San Antonio, TX recently ran this special report on the dangers
of 15-passenger vans, like the Ford E-350.

(visit my micro-blog on defective passenger vans)

Dangerous 15-Passenger Vans - Not Only Trial Lawyers Say So

Even the CEO of a fleet training and consulting corporation admonishes potenital clients of the dangerous 15-passenger van. This "x-ray" image reveals the instability defect of these death traps:

The 15-passenger van has been the subject of many studies over the years. It has beenscrutinized and closely examined for safety issues and its inability to handle certain situations and road conditions. Due to its design, it has been deemed one of the most unstable, most dangerous vehicles on the road. It is important to understand the dynamics of the 15-passenger van and what makes ita greater risk than most vehicles for accidents.

{source here}

The full document in .pdf form is avalable from the firm's box online account: link. 

Churches - Listen Up Here and Do the Right Thing

More than 10,000 churches continue to operate a vehicle that one major insurer of churches has declared "inherently unsafe."

GuideOne insures more than 50,000 churches nationwide. Of those, about 10,000 maintain policies on 15-passenger vans. Some of those churches own and insure more than one such van.
 
The insurer has strongly encouraged churches to stop using 15-passenger vans. "GuideOne believes 15-passenger vans to be inherently unsafe," the company said. "We encourage our policyholders to strongly consider other transportation options."
 
The company still covers 15-passenger vans it has already insured but has stopped writing new policies for the large vans.

via webmailimages.pastors.com

US ND CA to Test Digital Video Recording

The federal Judicial Conference is planning to launch a nationwide pilot program to digitally video record and broadcast certain district court civil proceedings. And the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has volunteered to participate.

via www.law.com

Recently, the firm had a 15-passenger van defect and rollover case removed to the US District Court for the Northern District of California, but we managed to have the case remanded to California state court, Alameda County. Still, it may be important for consumer protection to have a 15-passenger van rollover case video-taped so that the world may see how dangerous these defective vehicles can be.

15-Passenger Vans: Decades of Warnings and Fatal Crashes - Part 3

This series of posts is adapted from my article, of the same title above, which appeared in the December/January 2011 edition of Trial Talk, a publication of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. {Part 1 here}{Part 2 here}

Ford's first passenger van accommodated 12 passengers. That van was no more than a converted cargo van with windows and seats. Due to demand, Ford soon offered a 15-passenger model. In order to accommodate the extra row of seats Ford extended the rear end 37 inches behind the rear axle. The large overhang contributes to the dangerous handling characteristics of the van. Despite the knowledge of this handling problem, Ford has never moved the rear axle.

Compounding the problem is tire failure which, on vehicles with poor stability and handling, increase the chance of loss of control and subsequent rollovers. According to one analysis, 15 percent of the fatal van rollovers involved a tire failure.{8}

Each of the domestic automakers, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, has 15-passenger vans on the road today. Ford makes the E-Series/Econoline. GM makes include the Chevrolet Express, GMC Savanah, and Chrysler the Dodge Ram Van / Series B, which they no longer make.{9}

In recent years, Ford and GM have taken some steps to improve the safety of their 15-passenger vans. GM has taken the most aggressive steps. Their vans have a longer wheelbase, and they added electronic stability control as a standard feature beginning in the 2005 model year. GM also implemented rear shoulder lap belts in all positions in 2004 and advanced air bags in the 2005 model year.{10} Ford has added electronic stability control in recent years. However, manufacturers have done nothing to improve the rollover stability of teh van due to its high center of gravity.

Yet, very few of the 15-passenger vans on the road today are equipped with the latest safety features. According to a 2009 NHTSA report, as of July 1, 2007, the latest year for which registration data is available only about 7 percent of the fleet is model year 2004 or newer.{11}

15-Passenger Vans: Decades of Warnings and Fatal Crashes - Part 2

This series of posts is adapted from my article, of the same title above, which appeared in the December/January 2011 edition of Trial Talk, a publication of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association. {Part 1 here}

Since 1982, the National Highway Transportation Safety Board (NHTSA), has regularly issued recommendations aimed at ensuring that school kids are not transported in 15-passenger vans -- unless the vans meet the school bus requirements. {3} (As of 2005, school-aged children are prohibited by federal law from being transported in 15-passenger vans for school-related activities. {4} ) In 2001, NHTSA began to focus more closely on the van's propensity to rollover, issuing the first of five Consumer Advisories warning motorists of the safety hazards, the latest advisory issuing in October 2010.

Government warnings have done little to reduce the death and injury rate in 15-passenger van accidents. According to independent statistical analysis, there have been 724 fatal rollovers in which at least one occupant of a 15-passenger van died, from 1982 through 2008. {5} In total, these crashes killed 1,153 persons and injured  1,957 severely. Over a four-year period from 2004-2008, 40 percent of those killed in a rollover crash were riding in 15-passenger vans with 10 or more occupants. {6}

Fifteen-passenger vans are less stable than other types of vehicles - especially when fully loaded with passengers - because of their high center of gravity. The 15-passenger van is the only vehicle in the U.S.  fleet today that is not recommended to be used for its intended purpose. In 2004, NHTSA conducted a study showing that the odds of a 15-passenger van rolling over increases as the number of occupants increases. The study found that the odds increase 400 percent if the van is fully loaded, versus if the van is solely occupied by the driver. {7}

Next - Part 3 - Irresponsible Manufacturers?

15-Passenger Vans: Decades of Warnings and Fatal Crashes - Part 1

This series of posts is adapted from my article, of the same title above, which appeared in the December/January 2011 edition of Trial Talk, a publication of the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association.

INTRODUCTION

Fifteen passenger vans debuted in 1972 when Ford Motor Company transformed what it built as a cargo van into a passenger vehicle by adding five rows of seats. {1} Today, according to 2008 registrations, there are over 500,000 15-passenger vans on the roads.  {2} 

For years the transportation of choice for church groups, schools and athletic organizations, 15-passenger vans are unregulated, deemed to be commercial buses, and thus subject to few of the safety standards and protections of passenger cars or those that apply specifically to school buses.

Many tragic example of the dangers of the vehicles have been reported. Numerous lawsuits have been filed around the country. Due to their carrying capacity, a single rollover can kill or injure many people, including children and young adults. Seat belt use in 15-passenger vans is reduced by their unusual location and geometry. The problems are acute in the second, third and fourth row of seats. Some models have only lap belts in certain positions.

Next - Part 2 - Government Action?

See my micro-blog, focused on the danger of defective 15-passenger vans.

NHTSA Re-Issues 15 Passenger Van Danger Alert

On October 14, 2010, NHTSA yet again issued a safety/danger/risk alert on the defective 15-passenger van.

"As the fall and winter driving seasons get under way, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is urging users of 15-passenger vans to take specific steps to keep occupants safe. Two recent fatal crashes, in New York and Georgia, involving 15-passenger vans that rolled over and resulted in 10 deaths give urgency to this reminder.

The agency warns that tire maintenance is paramount to preventing tragedies, such as these recent rollover crashes, from occurring. Users of 15-passenger vans need to make sure the vehicles have appropriately-sized tires that are properly inflated before every trip. The agency also points out that tires degrade over time. For this reason, NHTSA recommends that spare tires not be used as replacements for worn tires. In fact, many tire manufacturers recommend that tires older than 10 years not be used at all.

NHTSA said that it is directing this advisory to church groups, other non-profit organizations and colleges that may be keeping older 15-passenger vans in service longer than usual because of tight transportation budgets. Pre-primary, primary and secondary schools should not use 15-passenger vans for transporting school children, as they do not provide the same level of safety as school buses. It is also against federal law for schools to buy new 15-passenger vans for school transportation purposes.

Here are some safety tips for anyone planning a trip in 15-passenger vans:

• If you are an owner, make sure the vehicle is properly maintained.
• Owners should make sure drivers are fully trained and experienced in operating a 15-passenger van and are properly licensed.
• 15-passenger vans are very sensitive to loading and should not be overloaded under any circumstances. Agency research shows overloading not only increases rollover risk but makes the vehicle more unstable in any handling maneuvers.
• Owners should make sure that properly sized tires are being used on their vehicles.
• Before every trip, drivers should check the tires for proper inflation, and make sure there are no signs of wear. Correct tire size and inflation pressure information can be found in the owner’s manual.
• If you are a passenger, make sure you buckle up for every trip."

NHTSA forgot the most important safety tip: avoid these death traps like the plague.

Consumer groups: Type of van in NY crash unstable

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – A church van that blew a tire and rolled over on the New York state Thruway, killing six people, is a type that some consumer groups have been calling unsafe for nearly a decade.

Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety both told The Associated Press on Monday in response to a question that they have been pushing for years for recalls, retrofits and redesigns of 15-passenger vans on the grounds that they are unstable.

via news.yahoo.com

See more on my 15-passenger van accident attorney microblog.

Ford's m.o. is to blame the tire, which of course could also be defective, but even with a defective tire and a blowout, the van if safely made with no defect in its architecture, should not have rolled over. In a case in California involving a Ford 15-passenger van in which I and my co-counsel have just recently filed a complaint, a rear Cooper tire failed and the van rolled over resulting in death and severe injuries. Isn't it time to get these murderous machines off the road for good?

15-passenger van accident

The 15-passenger van is so unstable and thus fundamentally defective that it strains the mind why such things are allowed to exist. Here it is on the showroom floor:

Here it is rolled over:

Yes, this 15-passenger van also had a defective tire which resulted in a tread separation at highway speed. Still, the van should have been and could have been manufactured not to rollover even with a tire tread separation. Please, don't get in these death traps. If I never get another one these cases because there are no more of these rollover vans on the road then I'll know that my past work in holding the manufacturers of these 15-passenger vans accountable was worth it.

Micro-blogging 15-passenger van defects

The micro-blog platform, posterous.com or tumblr.com, for example,might work best for blogging a specific product defect which risks catastrophic injury or death. 

I started building such a micro-blog, 15-passenger van accident attorney, over the past few weeks to showcase the serious risks of driving and riding in defective 15-passenger vans. Here's a few posts:

Minister of Education, British Columbia: School Districts and 15-passenger vans

University of Montana Phases Out (?) Defective 15-Passenger Vans

Denver Post article: 15-passenger vans have history of deadly rollovers

I hope my micro-blog will be instructive both to other attorneys and to anyone interested in this serious social and legal problem.

15-Passenger Van Accident - Stop the Carnage 2

Alert - News Report:

A church van accident over the weekend in Hamblen County [Tennessee] is drawing attention to the safety of 15-passenger vans.

It is an ongoing concern. In fact, federal law prohibits their use for school-related transportation.

"It can much more easily roll over and in a panic situation they won't handle like a car and people can find themselves off the road very quickly,' AAA East Tennessee Spokesman Don Lindsey explained.

Story here.

And this from our neighbor to the north:

The federal government has launched a safety review of 15-passenger vans, such as the one that seven students and a teacher in New Brunswick were travelling in when they were killed in January 2008.

The vans are popular transportation for school boards, sports teams and daycare centres, even though they have a dismal safety record.

Several jurisdictions in Canada and the United States have already conducted safety reviews and found the vans inappropriate for carrying large groups of students.

According to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, 1,100 people in the U.S. were killed in single-vehicle rollovers involving the vans between 1992 and 2002.

Reviews found the vans were three times more likely to roll over than any other vehicle.

Story here.

Are government safety reviews effective? I don't know about Canadian government safety reviews, but here in America we must be aware of what's called regulatory capture (sometimes called interest group capture by political scientists). The serious problem, which infects the constitution and our form of government itself, is this: the agency charged with regulating and policing a particular industry is "captured" by that industry by way of personal influence, money, gifts, travel, information deluge, and partisan propaganda in the mainstream media (and increasingly in the new internet media).

A common scenario is for the particular industry to hire ex-employees of the regulatory agency, paying them much more than they earned as civil servants. You can see where that will go. 

The problem was illustrated by my earlier post on What Happens in Vegas Need Not Stay in Vegas. Stay tuned...

15-Passenger Van Accidents - Stop the Carnage

On June 7, 2010, another 15-passenger van accident, this time in Arlington, Texas. See story here.

Fortunately, there were no fatalities, but the dangerous vehicle should not have rolled over. Instead, vehicles should be designed to slide out when the driver maneuvers to avoid a collision.

Last week, in Kentucky, yet another accident involved a 15-passenger van, although it is unknown if the known defect in the van was to blame. See story here.

More information on the defective 15-passenger van here.

15-Passenger Vans with Cooper Tires = Fatal Rides

Soon, co-counsel in various jurisdictions and I will file a major, personal injury and wrongful death action in California against several defendants, including Ford Motor Company and Cooper Tire. The 15-passenger van experienced a left-rear tire tread separation and then rolled over, injuring many and killing one. The 15-passenger van was a defective Ford van made doubly dangerous by being mal-equipped with defective Cooper tires.

The passengers, our clients, never reached their destination as they rightfully expected. After the short and fatal ride, NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), issued a "Research Note" which found:

• In 2007, fatalities to occupants of 15-passenger vans increased nearly 20% from the previous year.
• In 2007, there were 45 fatalities in 15-passenger vans that rolled over, 73% more than in 2006.

In our case, the fatal ride occurred in 2008. To our injured clients, and to counsel, fatality  trends  are absurd.

Point of concern: The NHTSA Research Note concluded: "All new 15-passenger vans being manufactured now have [Electronic Stability Control] ESC as standard equipment. When enough data are available, an analysis of the effect of ESC on rollover fatalities in 15-passenger vans will shed more light on this issue."  NHTSA fully expects that 15-passenger vans will continue to rollover; that is, vans without ESC will not be recalled as fatally dangerous and defective! Even if fatalities decline going forward, there will still be numerous van rollovers, many causing severe personal injury and death.  No single vehicle mishap -- a tire tread separation, for example -- should rollover, no matter the driver's skills. Tires should not suffer tread separations, but if they do, the vehicle should not roll over.

Welcome to my law blog

HELLO, I'm Randy Barnhart and this is the inaugural post on my law blog. My aspiration is to alert and inform readers about my law practice and the unnecessary injuries and deaths caused by defective products such as 15-passenger vans, about wider developments in American legal culture, and even to foray into popular culture generally, the better my existing and prospective clients, colleagues and connections can know me.

After 30 years in the legal profession, far from suffering the common ailment known as burn-out, I am happy at work, for several related reasons. I recently said farewell to corporate attorney partnerships and founded my new law firm, of which I am the sole principal.

Attorney partnerships have their advantages, but those advantages redound to the attorneys and may detract and distract from service to clients yearning for attentive and personal counsel. I still see the value of associated counsel, either as "of counsel" to the firm or as ad hoc support team-members. But those relationships are more easily managed to benefit a client's cause.

The world has changed (and is changing still), and going solo is the best law firm model for that new networked world. It may seem counter-intuitive, but the networked world allows a solo law practice to be a national law practice, as I am often retained with undiminished communication and collaboration by less-experienced local counsel in different states whose clients profit from my many battles against big auto and tire makers, such as Ford Motor and Firestone, and giant insurance companies. 

My past and current cases color the map: Colorado, California, Texas, and Florida, and I litigate in both state and federal courts.

So, my law practice is now focused on two areas or types of cases:

1) product liability litigation for personal injury, especially against manufacturers of defective 15-passenger vans, autos, suvs, trucks and tires; and

2) insurance recovery litigation on behalf of individuals and businesses, including securing compensatory and punitive damages for bad faith breach of insurance policy.

Clients benefit by this concentration. Below, some notes about defective and dangerous passenger vans, many manufactured by Ford.

Defective 15-passenger Vans

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 15-passenger vans debuted in 1972, when Ford transformed what was built as a cargo van into a passenger vehicle by adding five rows of seats. Today, according to 2008 registrations, there are about 500,000 15-passenger vans on the roads. Too many of them leave the road:

Before -
After -

Read more...

On any post, constructive comments are much appreciated. Come back soon - new posts every week.