NEWS FEATURE: Van Angels: Couple Helps Churches Retrofit 15-Passenger Vans

c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Mark Smith often contemplates what his daughter, Malori, would be doing now if she hadn’t been killed on a church mission trip to Mexico two years ago, six weeks after her high school graduation. “You can’t help wondering,” Smith said by phone from his Denver home. “All of her […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Mark Smith often contemplates what his daughter, Malori, would be doing now if she hadn’t been killed on a church mission trip to Mexico two years ago, six weeks after her high school graduation. “You can’t help wondering,” Smith said by phone from his Denver home. “All of her friends are coming home from college now, and I often think about what she would be doing, too.”

Smith hopes that through a new nonprofit project, Van Angels, no other parents ever have a child killed while riding in a 15-passenger vehicle. The vehicles are often called “church vans” because of their popularity with church groups.


Malori was one of three people killed when the church van they were in crashed near Monterrey, Mexico, following the separation of a virtually new left rear tire. The others killed were Bethany Bosarge, 16, of Peachtree, Ga., and Jonathan Lomeli, 23, of Laredo, Texas. Several others were seriously injured.

While he was devastated at the loss of his only daughter and oldest child, Smith and his wife, Cindy, decided not to sit by while others needlessly died _ others such as 10-year-old Jesse Brooks of Albertville, Ala., killed coming home from a mission trip to Wyoming the same month as the Smiths’ daughter.

After settling a class-action lawsuit against Ford and Michelin in 2002, Smith and the other families involved in the Mexico accident decided to set aside part of their undisclosed settlement to help churches and schools retrofit their 15-passenger vans by adding two rear tires.

“Each family decided what it wanted to contribute,” said Smith, director of Van Angels. “After a few days of news, we asked ourselves, ‘What can we do to prevent more accidents?’ We came up with the idea of Van Angels to create educational awareness about issues relating to 15-passenger vans.”

Smith said adding two rear tires will prevent most vans from rolling over during an accident.

After the settlement, Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes blamed the accident that killed Smith’s daughter and two others on a faulty tire on the E350 Econoline van, according to The Associated Press.

“Our condolences go out to those involved, but this accident was caused by tread separation,” Vokes said at the time. “Under the circumstances of this accident, any van, pickup or sport utility vehicle would have rolled over.”


Smith, who said he was unaware of van safety problems before his daughter was killed, said the weight being carried by the van caused the new tire to separate.

“Vans were designed as cargo vans and never intended for passengers,” he said. “Most of the weight is on the left rear tire, which causes it to separate.”

Van Angels even hired an expert to test a van using dual tires, who proved it would not roll, Smith said. He said Ford vans sold in Europe are required to have dual-rear-wheel systems, so the technology to make the vehicles safer is already in place.

In May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a third cautionary warning of rollover risk under certain conditions to users of 15-passenger vans. The first two warnings were issued in 2001 and 2002. NHTSA said 763 people were killed and 1,469 “incapacitatingly injured” in rollovers between 1982 and 2001.

The federal government prohibits public elementary and secondary schools from transporting students in 15-passenger vans.

Jeff Wigington, a Texas lawyer who represented the church plaintiffs and who specializes in product defects, called the third government advisory “unprecedented.”


“I am not aware of the federal government ever taking this type of action on any other vehicle, including the Ford Pinto,” he said by phone from his Corpus Christi office. “It just shows the seriousness of the problem, and it’s not getting any better.”

Wigington said some in Congress, including Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Olympia Snowe of Maine, want to make van manufacturers recall or redesign their vehicles.

A 15-passenger van accident last year that killed 12 people in Maine spurred Snow’s interest, said Wigington, who is representing families of the Maine group in litigation. He said his firm also represents “about a half-dozen” groups involved in church van crashes.

The biggest obstacle Van Angels is encountering is finding companies capable of adding the dual-rear-wheel system.

“We thought we could find some people fairly easy to retrofit the vans,”said Smith, adding that he knows of only three places that do the work.

The first Angel Van fitted with the dual wheels was picked up this week by Smith’s brother, the Rev. Scott Smith of Trinity Christian Fellowship Church in Chandler, Ariz. Van Angels covered the cost of about $2,100, which included four new tires, plus a spare, an adapter kit and the fenders to cover the tires.


“I really could not tell a difference in the way it handled,” Scott Smith said. “I’ve just driven it from the shop to the church, but it seems to run really well.”

The Rev. Smith said his church used to use its van for all trips, in town and out, until his niece was killed. “We started using it less and less,” he said. “It made us very nervous to carry kids in it.”

DEA/JL END RNS

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