Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Warning on Large-Sized Vans

For those of us with super-sized vans (15 passenger), this article is worth a read. It should be noted, however, that the greatest danger is when they are fully loaded with adults and/or when they are driven by people not accustomed to drive them (so the danger usually doesn't apply so completely to regular family use)...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8274-2004Jun1.html

2 comments:

Mary G said...

We have a 15-passenger van, Moby (he's big and white!). We took out the back seat for cargo room and rarely have more than the 7 of us riding in it.

That said, I have a problem with this article as they don't mention the actual break-down of their statistics -- most of these accidents were by inexperienced drivers in the Ford vans. The GMC and Chevy ones have a much longer wheel-base that is also lower to the ground. They don't have as many accidents.

Sorry to be so emphatic -- but Moby is part of the family!

love2learnmom said...

Good points, all (we are the proud owners of a White Ford 15 passenger van). My real point was that there might be some circumstances that owners of these vans might like to be aware of: A. That in circumstances where they are carrying a lot of full-grown passengers (like a teen trip), there might be additional handling issues and B. that inexperienced drivers might be particularly dangerous under these conditions. Probably not a good time to have your teen practice driving. Let me know if you find any other/better stats.