Avoiding rollovers

The risk of rollover crashes in 15 passenger vans increases when five or more passengers ride in the van. When more passengers climb in, the vehicle’s center of gravity moves higher and further rearward, which increases the vehicle’s propensity to oversteer and decreases its lateral stability. As a consequence, the rollover risk is increased, especially during emergency maneuvering or high speed driving.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration offers the following recommendations for 15 passenger van driving:

* Operators should be highly experienced and fully trained.
* When not all seating positions are occupied, seats forward of the rear axle should be occupied first.
* Reduce speed in bad weather, avoid distractions and do not drive when tired.
* Do not transport cargo on the roof, which further raises the center of gravity and increases the rollover risk.
* Everybody buckle up. Nearly 80 percent of rollover fatalities occurred to passengers not wearing seat belts and 91 percent of belted passengers survived rollovers in a recent ten year period.