Fifteen Passenger Vans: some safety tips



If you've spent any time in the US, you've no doubt noticed the popularity of the fifteen passenger van. These passenger vans are a great way to help transport medium sized groups of people without having to resort to a full-sized bus, or to relying on taking multiple cars or vans to an event. They are popular among sports teams, and also in workplaces, and are a good way of ferrying people around with relative ease. Fifteen passenger vans first appeared in 1972, with popularity peaking during the 1990s. Almost half a million registrations for these vans were made in 2008, indicating that they represent a substantial number of the vehicles on America's roads.



However, if you're unfamiliar with these vans, you may not be aware that they are prone to accidents. A fifteen passenger van is classified as a bus for safety purposes. While drivers of these vans are at a lower risk of dying than in other large vehicles, passengers are at a higher risk of being injured or dying. This is in part due to high occupancy rates of the vans. For example, where a regular car might have only four passengers at a maximum, a fifteen passenger van has the potential for a greater number of deaths purely because of its higher driver to passenger ratio.

Like SUVs, vehicles along the lines of the fifteen passenger van are prone to rolling over. This type of accident accounts for the majority of accidents involving a fifteen passenger van in the US. While some accidents involve head on collisions with other vehicles or stationary objects such as trees, it is highly likely that a fifteen passenger van will roll given poor circumstances. For example, a sharp turn or an angled road can easily set a fifteen passenger vehicle on the road to toppling over.

The reason that there are so many accidents involving vans of the fifteen passenger variety is in part because there are no special licensing requirements needed in order to drive one of these vans. While drivers of vehicles licensed to carry 16 or more passengers are required to have a special license, drivers of slightly smaller vehicles only need a regular driver's license in order to drive a fifteen passenger van. This obviously has implications for safety. A fifteen passenger van is a significantly larger vehicle than a vehicle such as a regular car, and drivers may often be inexperienced in terms of driving such a vehicle, or may drive it infrequently, for example to drive around a church group or sports team.