[Philmont]: 15-Passenger Vans & rollovers

At the risk of piling on, here's a true life incident on rollovers in
15-passenger vans.

Back in 1995, a group of Girl Scouts and families from our community in East
Tennessee took a 7-hour trip to Savannah, Georgia, the historical home of
Girl Scouting in the USA.

One of the vehicles, being driven by an experienced Girl Scout leader, was a
rented 15-passenger van. She is the mother of 4, and had been a driver on
several previous trips in 15-passenger vans. The van was full of girls,
plus the leader and her husband. There was a fairly large contingent on
this trip, but the other parents and girls were following in their family
vehicles.

Just after lunch, on a clear June day, and just south of Orangeburg, SC, the
van experienced a roll-over in the median of I-26, which resulted in serious
injury to 3 girls and minor injuries to several other girls. The driver
simply got too close to the median, and could not keep the van upright. It
was our good fortune that the median at that location was large, fairly
flat, and unobstructed by trees or other obstacles.

Luckily, there were no fatalities. Also, to their great fortune, an E.R.
doc happened to be in the oncoming lane, stopped, and triaged the injuries.
The most seriously injured girl was sent by heli-vac to Columbia, SC. The
other injured girls were sent by ambulance back to the local hospital in
Orangeburg. The two most seriously injured girls experienced broken bones
plus head injuries. One of the girls, now aged 19, still has residual
learning disabilities and weakness/limp in one of her lower extremities. A
lawsuit was filed by her family to collect from the company insuring the
Girl Scouts. The second most seriously injured girl (our next door neighbor)
still has very mild learning disabilities, and received a settlement from
the insurance company without filing suit. The third girl was the daughter
of the driver/leader, and she sustained some permanent injury to one of her
eyes, plus other injuries; I don't know the status of their settlement.

It was only after the fact that we found out about the frequency of
rollovers in 15-passenger vans. We also were not aware of the high
mortality rate in rollovers. If our neighbors (the parents of the second
girl) had been aware of this risk, I know they would never have permitted
their daughter to ride in a 15-passenger van.

This may be a partial explanation of why the Girls Scouts do not allow
transport in 15-passenger vans.

Jon Mather
ASM, Troop 387, Kingsport, TN

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Received on Fri Jan 27 16:25:28 2006