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15-passenger vans slip through safety gap: ever since manufacturers converted them from cargo vans to people-movers, 15-passenger vans have been outside the reach of regulatory standards. But the loopholes may be closing.

Article Excerpt
Much has been written about the dangers of 15-passenger vans, (1) but these vehicles seem to have slipped through the cracks of automotive safety regulation. They are classified as neither passenger cars nor school buses, and as a result they are exempt from many federal motor-vehicle safety standards. They are also excluded from one manufacturer's own rollover-resistance testing.

One reason the vans have escaped regulation as conventional passenger vehicles is that they were originally designed to carry cargo. In the 1970s when a market for the vehicle emerged, automakers simply took the existing frame and chassis platforms and added seating, windows, and other amenities. Little testing was done to assess the handling characteristics and rollover propensity of these vehicles when they were first manufactured, and their fundamental design has changed little in the last three decades.

Following tremendous publicity surrounding several high-profile accidents involving 15-passenger vans--usually single-vehicle rollovers--the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began looking at how to correct regulatory omissions and may include the vehicle in its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), which would provide consumer-safety information related to the vans' rollover propensity.

NHTSA identified the vans' hazards in two public advisories and an accompanying research report, all of which revealed that as the vehicles were loaded with more passengers, the center of gravity changed, causing handling and stability problems. On April 9, 2001, the agency issued its first consumer advisory:

The results of a recent analysis by NHTSA revealed that 15-passenger vans have it rollover risk that is similar to other light trucks and vans when carrying a few passengers. However, the risk of rollover increases dramatically as the number of occupants increases from fewer than 5 occupants to over 10 passengers. In fact, 15-passenger vans (with 10 or more passengers) had a rollover rate in single-vehicle crashes that is nearly three times the rate of those that were lightly loaded. NHTSA's analysis revealed that loading the 15-passenger van causes the center of gravity to shift rearward and upward, increasing the likelihood of rollover. This shift in the center of gravity will also increase the potential for loss...

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