July 24, 2010, 08:00:00AM. By Gordon Gibb

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Ottawa, ON: Fifteen-passenger vans have few fans in Canadian schools these days, after two 2008 accidents fueled an effort to pass legislation that would ban the vans for student transport. Michael Gurr, 26, died in the rollover crash of a 15-passenger van two years ago, and seven students and a teacher were killed when a 15-passenger van crashed in New Brunswick that same year.

The Canadian government announced late last month that it would be investigating the safety and performance of the vans for use in transporting schoolchildren.

The Nanaimo Daily News reports that more than 40 states in the US, as well as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada, have already outlawed 15-passenger vans for transporting school children. If passed, Bill C-522 would extend a similar ban across all of Canada.

Some safety experts have referred to the 15-passenger vans as "death traps," according to the Nanaimo Daily News. Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Cowichan, Jean Crowder, was in Ottawa recently for first reading of the Bill. "It makes you wonder why Canada has not stepped up on this," she said. "Cargo vans are one thing, but for human transportation?"

In the meantime, Canada's Transport Minister John Baird has announced a review of safety standards applicable to 15-passenger vans. This is not a move to ban them—but rather an attempt to increase their safety. The review does not appear to be linked with the proposed legislation to ban the use of 15-passenger vans for school children.

Part of the Canadian government's safety review will scrutinize the stability of the vans and determine "the vehicle rollover threshold," according to the text of the proposed review.

The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration has said that when loaded with 10 or more occupants, the rollover ratio for 15-passenger vans is three times the ratio with five or fewer passengers. When there are
more than fifteen passengers, the rollover ratio jumps to 70 percent.

More than 1,100 occupants of 15-passenger vans have died in the US between 1990 and 2002.

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