Bus Safety

Large passenger vans (vans with a rated capacity of 11-15 persons) have come under scrutiny because of their increasing involvement in roll-over crashes that often cause multiple fatalities and injuries. These kinds of severe crashes frequently trigger lawsuits resulting in millions of dollars in damages being levied against the van’s owner. The handling characteristics of these vehicles change substantially when they are loaded with passengers, and they become more susceptible to loss of control and roll over under certain conditions.
A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study published in April of 2001 examined the propensity of large vans to roll over in single vehicle crashes. The issue of rollover propensity considered the effect of higher occupancy levels in the vans. The crash data were examined to determine the correlation, if any, of the increased risk of rollover with higher occupancy levels. The data indicates that 15 passenger vans with 10 or more occupants had three times the rollover ratio of those with fewer than 10 occupants and that when fully loaded, large passenger vans have an increased rollover risk of approximately 40%. Universities in some states, such as Indiana, have forbidden the use of large passenger vans for student transport.

North Dakota State Fleet currently has 114 large passenger vans that are assigned to motor pools, agencies and universities. There have been roll-over crashes with North Dakota vans, with two of them occurring last year. There were no fatalities in these crashes, but there were injuries. North Dakota has experienced fatal van crashes in the past.

Users of large passenger vans have expressed the desire to continue to have these vehicles available, but there is concern about the risk involved with their use.

State Fleet Services has developed, in concert with the North Dakota Risk Management Division and the University System, a use policy and training regimen for drivers of large passenger vans. The products of this effort will be disseminated to agencies and universities and will be implemented at the user level. State Fleet will grant the time necessary for users to implement this policy. With this action, we expect to make crashes less likely and reduce our liability exposure if they do occur.

The training regimen will include a web based instructional program and a behind-the-wheel component.
The instructional program can be completed on any PC that has Internet access. The behind-the-wheel component will be conducted at various user sites around the state.

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