Just say no to vans-

by **DanGenck** on Tue Sep 27, 2005 7:52 am

This could have been our program on numerous occasions.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/27/van.cr ... index.html

**Sponsor**

by **Pinball** on Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:51 pm

That is why our school now has dumped the 15 passenger vans and went with the "mini-bus" things. Same amount of passengers and are pretty easy to drive and i would assume they are a tad bit safer??

by **TexOle** on Tue Sep 27, 2005 11:49 pm

Vans are safe vehicles. The problem is that people driving the vans do not know how to drive them. Most of them are driven by college students who do not take in to consideration what they driving. If you drive smart and defensively then these are safe vehicles. Look at the number of these vehicles and the number of wrecks.

by **Brent Burns** on Wed Sep 28, 2005 6:33 am

TexOle wrote:Vans are safe vehicles. The problem is that people driving the vans do not know how to drive them. Most of them are driven by college students who do not take in to consideration what they driving. If you drive smart and defensively then these are safe vehicles. Look at the number of these vehicles and the number of wrecks.

If I understand and remember from what I have attended at my work, a federal agency and a state agency require that those who would be driving a 15 passenger van attend a training session to talk about safely driving a 15 passenger van. In that meeting, we were told that no student worker alone can not drive a 15 passenger van. Only the employees of the college were authorized to drive a van. I once drove a van that uses propane. Yikes. That was several years ago.

by **whitcd** on Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:29 pm

This past summer, we had a van driven by an AET faculty crash in Michigan killing 3 of the people inside. After that our school got rid of the 15 passenger vans also

Here is more information:
http://www.wcco.com/topstories/local_st ... 91654.html

by **Campbell** on Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:04 pm

I think TexOle is trying to say it is not an issue inherent to vans, just that certain drivers or situations can be a factor. Just like any other accident. The big difference is a 15 passenger van usually has a lot of people in it so when it crashes the number of people affected is higher than a normal car accident. I would say buses are probably the safest bet if you can afford them simply because it is usually a professional driver operating it.

by **TexOle** on Wed Sep 28, 2005 7:55 pm

Thank you TSULacrosse. These vans pose certain risks. Often times the high center of gravity and weight of these vehicles present issues not encountered in other vehicles. I grew up driving larger vehicles, and I feel comfortable with them. I have driven them in NYC, Washington, DC, Minnesota, and numerous other areas. The margin of error in these vehicles is small, but if you drive them properly then they are safe. The best advice I can give to any driver of these vehicles is to drive in a defensive manner. Defensive Driving is the most boring class, but when you finish it you will change driving habits.

by **mholtz** on Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:13 pm

TSULacrosse wrote:I think TexOle is trying to say it is not an issue inherent to vans, just that certain drivers or situations can be a factor. Just like any other accident. The big difference is a 15 passenger van usually has a lot of people in it so when it crashes the number of people affected is higher than a normal car accident. I would say buses are probably the safest bet if you can afford them simply because it is usually a professional driver operating it.

Oh I got some stories for you about "professional" bus drivers...

Like the one time in pittsburgh when one tried to take on a 3' diameter cement pylon. Neither the bus nor the pylon won that one.

Or the time when a police car got in front of him, and opened his door while pulling someone over. We were stopped behind the police car... and the open door didn't stop him... he just drove through it.

But seriously, busses are usually much safer.

by **jimh3983** on Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:53 am

For some teams, there is no option, it is much much cheaper than getting chartered buses.

For us, our school has a deal with Enterprise Car Rentals, which gets us minivans at $30/van/day which is an awesome deal. If you look at the other option, buses, thats like over $1000 a day. Yeah, we have to take 4 or 5 minivans per trip, but financially it makes so much more sense.

It comes down to safe driving and not having idiots behind the wheel of these things.

by **Danny Hogan** on Thu Sep 29, 2005 6:45 am

minivans are not a problem, its the 15-passenger ones that end up in firey crashes most often. i guess you could say minivans are a problem if a student is driving.

by **Chris Capizzi** on Fri Sep 30, 2005 4:04 pm

I believe it all comes down to who is driving the vehicle, no matter if it's a 15 passenger van, bus, or mini van. We were in a mini van and our team usually let the older players drive, but we put a clown behind the wheel and he plowed us into a concrete monster median in Atlanta.