Archive for the ‘passenger van roll-over’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 28, 2012
A 14-passenger 2002 Chevrolet Express van overloaded with 17 people, many of them not wearing seat belts, rolled over on I-96 in Michigan near Grand Rapids. An 18-year-old Burundian refugee named Ombeni Erasto died, and his sister reportedly lost part of her leg. Several other people in the van were injured. State police said the van’s rear tire blew, causing the 22-year-old driver to lose control. An article at the Lansing State Journal gives some details:
LOWELL TWP. — The Lansing teenager who died Sunday in an accident near Grand Rapids was on his way home from a church choir performance that he had been looking forward to for a while, said his younger brother.
Omberi Erasto, 18…was one of 17 people ranging in age from infant to adult in a 14-passenger 2002 Chevrolet Express van, which was traveling east on Interstate 96 in Lowell Township. State police said the van’s rear tire blew, causing the 22-year-old Lansing driver to lose control. The van struck another vehicle and slid sideways off the roadway.
The accident killed Erasto, a senior at Lansing Eastern High School. Several relatives, including three of his sisters, also were injured in the accident, said Erasto’s younger brother, Shukurani Nyabenda, 16. Nyabenda said other family members were also in the van…
…His family came to Michigan from Tanzania as refugees about five years ago, Nyabenda said. Erasto was born in Burundi… Read more here
…and this from WOOD-TV 8:
LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) – The 15-passenger van that overturned along I-96 Sunday carried 17 members of Lansing’s Burundi Choir who were returning home after a concert in Grand Rapids.
Ombeni Erasto died in the crash , and his sister reportedly lost part of her leg. Several other people were injured, and many were not wearing seat belts.
The group includes many Burundi refugees who fled their country during the civil war and ended up in Tanzanian refugee camps… Read more here
A report from the WILX media outlet says that out of the 17 on board, over half were under the age of 18, including three infants.
These vans are not safe when used for their intended purpose of carrying the maximum allowable number of passengers. The vans should never be overloaded, and must be underloaded. In addition, fuel tanks should be kept full to help lower the center of gravity, all passengers must wear seat belts, tires must be regularly inspected, and only people experienced with driving passenger vans should be at the wheel.
In December three refugees died in a passenger van rollover in Amarillo, Texas. Another van rolled in November near Rushmore, Minnesota. In early 2011 there were van rollover accidents involving refugees in central Georgia (and here) and northern Georgia. A passenger van rollover in Arizona in 2009 killed six refugees.
Posted in Burundian, churches, Lansing, Michigan, passenger van roll-over, teenagers | Tagged: Burundi, Burundian, Chevrolet Express, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Ombeni Erasto, passenger van, refugees, resettlement, roll-over, rollover | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 31, 2011
A Chevrolet passenger van carrying 15 Somali refugees from Amarillo in the Texas panhandle to their jobs at Cargill in Plainview rolled over today, killing three people. There are seven others in critical condition. The van, supposedly owned by one of the workers, struck debris on the road, swerved, overcorrected and rolled as many as five times. According to authorities neither those killed nor those critically hurt were wearing seat belts. An article in the Plainview Daily Herald reports on this tragic incident, the fourth van rollover this year in which refugees died or endured serious injuries:
Twelve of the 15 people in a van headed from Amarillo to Plainview to work at Cargill on Friday afternoon were ejected in a one-vehicle rollover two miles south of Canyon on Interstate 27.
Three of them died.
Department of Public Safety officials said Amar Ashur, Omar Abdi Qadir and Abdirizak Addulle Mohamed, 24, all of Amarillo, were killed in the accident that occurred when the Chevrolet van in which they were riding hit debris on the road, swerved, overcorrected and rolled as many as five times. The van, driven by 28-year-old Ibrahim M. Iden of Amarillo, came to rest on its roof…
…Neither those killed nor those critically hurt were wearing seat belts, authorities said…
…The van was carrying 15 Somali workers from their homes in and around Amarillo to work the second shift at Cargill…
…Catholic Family Service estimated about 1,000 Somalis lived in Amarillo in 2008 and expected about 400 refugees to come to the city this year, many of them fleeing military conflict.
The van apparently belonged to one of the occupants… Read more here
There was another van rollover on November 19 near Rushmore, Minnesota. Earlier this year there were van rollover accidents involving refugees in central Georgia (and here) and northern Georgia. A passenger van rollover in 2009 in Arizona killed six.
These vans are not safe when used for the intended purpose of carrying 15 passengers, due to instability caused by the raised center of gravity. Even 12-passenger vans are suspect.
***UPDATE*** January 3, 2012 — 3 still in critical condition, passanger van was a 2003 Chevrolet Express.
Posted in Amarillo, Catholic Family Service, Amarillo, meatpacking industry, passenger van roll-over, Somali | Tagged: Amarillo, Cargill, Catholic Family Service, Chevrolet Express, ejected, passenger van, refugees, resettlement, somalis, van rollover | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 3, 2011
Once again there has been a tragedy involving refugees and a van rollover. One refugee from Myanmar is dead and two others were seriously injured in an accident near Rushmore, Minnesota. The killed and injured were on their way to meatpacking jobs in Worthington. An article in the Argus Leader has the story:
Myanmar immigrants, persecuted for years, have found happiness in Sioux Falls, says a priest who works with some of the newcomers.
But for the past two weeks, grief has subdued the joyousness they have felt.
One member of their community died Nov. 19 in a one-vehicle rollover near Rushmore, Minn.
Two other passengers remain hospitalized in Sioux Falls, beginning what could be weeks of rehabilitation.
Three families are suffering, says the Rev. Paul King of St. Lambert Catholic Church…
…“For Bya Reh’s family, he was the only wage earner. His eldest son is going to school.”
Reh, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which happened at 2:47 p.m. on a Saturday. Eight people, including the driver, were traveling on Interstate 90 on a surface that had been made slick by freezing rain that started earlier in the day.
The group was traveling to their jobs at JBS Swift & Co. meat-packing plant in Worthington. Five of the passengers were Sudanese, King says. The other two Burmese on the van were Oo Meh, 30, and Beh Reh, 51. Bya Reh and Beh Reh are not related.
The two men and Meh are members of the Karenni, a minority group in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma…
…Bya Reh, whose funeral was Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, leaves behind a wife and four children, a 23-year-old daughter and three sons, ages 21, 13 and 12.
Beh Reh, who spent a week at Sanford Health in critical condition, broke a hip in the accident and also suffered bruised ribs, a bruised heart and a severe blow to his head.
“He’s still quite confused and agitated,” King says. “He was on a respirator for most of last week. He’s able to talk but quite confused.”
Beh Reh is married with four children. His daughters are ages 21 and 11 with two sons ages 19 and 15.
Meh and her husband both work at the meatpacking plant. They took opposite shifts so someone could be home with their children, daughters ages 12 and 4 and a son who is about 8. She sustained fractures along her spine and broke her pelvis….
…The three families moved to Sioux Falls less than three years ago and have struggled to find work… Read more here
In the past several years there have also been van rollover accidents with refugees in Arizona, central Georgia (and here), and north Georgia.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Karenni, Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, meatpacking industry, passenger van roll-over, Sudanese | Tagged: Burma, JBS Swift & Co, karenni, meat packing, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, roll-over, van, Worthington | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 18, 2011
The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia sent us a copy of the crash report for the single vehicle crash involving the 15-passenger Chevrolet 3500 van, and the report confirms their spokeswoman’s earlier statement that a tire blow-out was the apparent cause of the crash.
There were 13 refugees injured and two killed (one man was ejected out the back door of the van and decapitated ; the other man killed was thrown to the rear cargo area and entrapped). Injuries included fractured ribs, severe internal injuries, severe head injuries, a severed right hand, and the front passenger’s left arm was severed below the elbow (emergency personnel extricated him due to entrapment). The youngest passenger, a 20-year-old male Sudanese refugee, suffered a broken jaw (the driver and 12 passengers were Nepali-Bhutanese refugees, and there were two African refugee passengers). All of the 15 people were traveling to their Perdue chicken-processing factory jobs in Perry, 106 miles south of their homes in Atlanta. The report says that an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) official claimed that World Relief supplied the refugees with the jobs. There is no mention of RRISA, as in media reports.
Several witnesses in vehicles traveling in the same direction heard a loud sound before the van went out of control — one described it as a “pow” and another described it as a “pop”. The vehicle swerved off I-75, crossed the median, and hit a guard rail support on the other side — causing it to flip over front-to-back, land upside down on the guard rail, then make a full sideways roll and landing upside down.
The crash report also gives clues about the cause of the left rear tire blow-out. Both of the front tires were in very good condition (“like new”), with 3/4 inch tread depth on each tire. The two rear tires, however — both Uniroyal Laredo LT245/75R16 with load range E — were not in very good condition, with “some dry rot present”. The right rear tire had about 1/4 inch tread depth and the tread was partially torn. The left rear tire, the tire that failed before the crash, lost its tread during the crash leaving only the cords and steel belts exposed. There was also a tear on the left rear tire that went from outer sidewall to inner sidewall. So, perhaps the left rear tire blew-out due to severe wear and/or dry rot, and not due to tire over-inflation or under-inflation as I earlier surmised.
Another issue, according to a report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is that these 15-passenger vans, when used as directed, with up to 15 passengers, are more likely to roll over, by 9-12 percent per passenger added, due to an increase in the height of the center of gravity. In other words, the purpose of the vehicle, to transport up to 15 passengers, is also the source of these vehicles’ risk. The higher the occupancy the higher the risk. I suspect, though, that fully loaded vehicles — with tires that are not properly maintained and replaced when necessary – are much more likely to have a tire blow-out initiating the rollover. A driver inexperienced with handling a large passenger van, especially a new driver inexperienced with driving any vehicle, would no doubt also increase the rollover risk due to inexperience with handling (although a fully loaded 15-passenger van that experiences a tire blow-out at high-speed would, no doubt, be extremely difficult if not impossible to control even for an experienced van driver).
Posted in Atlanta, economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, Georgia, ICE, meatpacking industry, Nepali Bhutanese, passenger van roll-over, safety, transportation, World Relief | Tagged: 15-passenger van, Atlanta, Bhutanese refugees, Chevrolet 3500, Chevy 3500, chicken processing, georgia, Ghanese refugee, human rights, I-75, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, meat processing, meatpacking, Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Nepali refugees, Nepali-Bhutanese, Perdue, Perry, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, rollover, sudanese refugee, tire blow-out, Uniroyal Laredo LT245/75R16, World Relief | 4 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 11, 2011
Just five days after I posted the story on a passenger van accident in Georgia involving refugees killed and injured there was yet another passenger van crash in Georgia involving refugees — on Wed. April 6, 2011. The Bhutan News Service reports that this time a Bhutanese refugee returning from a chicken processing plant in an automobile allegedly collided with a van carrying seven passengers while attempting to overtake the van. The van was also returning Bhutanese refugees to their homes in Atlanta after working at the chicken processing factory. The drive of the car is apparently missing.
A few resettled Bhutanese were injured when an overtaking car hit and veered off a van on Tuesday morning at 4:30 am local time. Of them, one is critical.
According to the report, Rohit Dhakal, 32, was seriously injured when a car driven by another resettled fellow of Beldangi-II allegedly collided with a van carrying seven passengers while overtaking…
…“He is critically injured and being treated in the hospital now,” Hemu told Bhutan News Service…
…The driver of the van, who received minor injuries, is reported to have told Hemu that the vehicle over-turned a number of times before its [tire] got blown off… Read more here
The former Bhutanese refugee who met with a car accident recently in Atlanta, GA has been in coma for four days.
According to Narad Sharma, a close relative who has been taking care of the victim since he met with an accident, the victim has been undergoing medical treatment at Grady Health System in South-east Atlanta.
“He underwent head surgery on the same day of accident, and has been scheduled for the next one tonight”, says Sharma adding the victim may have to undergo series of surgeries…the victim is out of danger but he may have brain haemorrhage that can have long term complications…
…Rohit met with an accident last Wednesday when he was returning from his work as the van driven by Amit Thapa, a fellow worker at the Chicken factory was overtaken by another speeding car. Read more here
Oddly, AccessNorthGA has an article from April 6th which reports that the crash occurred near Gainesville in northern Georgia, but that it happened after the van’s (a minivan) driver struck a curb, lost control, and then hit a tractor-trailer. That article lists a different first name for the van driver, although the same last name, and gives the accident time as 3:30am, though the Bhutan News Service said it occurred at 4:30am.
GAINESVILLE - At least one person was injured early Wednesday when a minivan and a tractor trailer collided on the southside of Gainesville.
Gainesville Police Officer Joe Britte said the accident happened when the driver of the minivan struck a curb as he tried to turn from Athens Highway onto the southbound Interstate 985 entrance ramp.
“It struck the curb then lost control of the vehicle and struck the tractor trailer,” he said.
.
“It struck the curb then lost control of the vehicle and struck the tractor trailer,” he said.
Britte said the driver of the minivan, 22-year-old Mahendra Thapa, was injured in the incident. He
said the driver of the tractor trailer, Grady Tritt, was not.
Britte said the accident, which occurred around 3:30a.m., is still under investigation.
Posted in Atlanta, Georgia, Hindu, meatpacking industry, Nepali Bhutanese, passenger van roll-over, safety, transportation | Tagged: achey, Amit Thapa, Athens Highway, Atlanta, Beldangi, Bhutan, Bhutan News Service, Bhutanese refugees, brain haemorrhage, chicken processing, Gainesville, Gainesville GA, georgia, Grady Health System, Grady Memorial Hospital, Grady Tritt, head surgery, human rights, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Narad Sharma, Nepal, Nepalese refugees, Nepali-Bhutanese, passenger van crash, Perdue, refugee, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, Rohit Dhakal, Rohit Sharma Dhakal, Sibsoo | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 30, 2011
2002 Chevrolet 3500 extended
There’s been yet another tragic van roll-over accident involving refugees killed and severely injured — this time in Georgia, on I-75 between Atlanta and Macon. The deadly single-vehicle crash occurred on March 22 in Monroe county; two Bhutanese refugee men were killed and 13 other Nepali-Bhutanese and African refugees were injured. One of the men killed was also ejected from the vehicle. Several of the injured victims remain in the hospital in critical condition. This crash seems to involve the same (or similar) cause as a van roll-over crash in Arizona near Tuscon in June 2009 — failure of one of the van’s tires (may have been due to over-inflation, under-inflation, or road debris, etc.). The Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), a joint affiliate of Church World Service (CWS) and Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), resettled the refugees in Atlanta. An article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explains what happened.
A tight-knit community of refugees from Bhutan is reeling from a van crash that claimed the lives of two men and injured another 13 people as they traveled from Atlanta to their jobs at a chicken plant in Perry.
Some of the injured remained in critical condition in a Macon hospital Tuesday, according to people who know them. And some of the victims were parents whose children were left with no breadwinner…
…The crash occurred around 9 p.m. on March 22 in Monroe County. The Chevrolet 3500 van they were riding in went off the road, hit a guardrail and overturned, according to the website of the The Herald-Gazette newspaper in Barnesville. The crash blocked traffic on southbound I-75 for nearly three hours.
Two men, both from Decatur, died: Tula R. Chamlagai, 44, and Kharka B. Chhetri, 49…
…The van passengers were on their regular nightly commute to a Perdue chicken-processing plant two hours south of Atlanta. They had been making the trek five times a week, Kafley said.
Two of the victims were African nationals and the rest were refugees from Bhutan. They knew each other because they’d been brought to DeKalb County by the same resettlement agency, the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, Kafley said. Read more here
An article in The Telegraph in Macon gives more information:
…At least one of the passengers, either Chamlagai or Chhetri, was ejected from the van. It’s unknown whether any of the passengers were wearing seat belts, said Allison Selman-Willis, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.
By the time we got there, people were everywhere,” she said.
It was unclear Wednesday whether members of the group were paying for the ride to Perry or if they were a carpooling group.
Thirteen of the vehicle’s occupants originally hailed from Asia. Two are from Ghana, Selman-Willis said.
The driver of the van, 29-year-old Bhim B. Bista of Atlanta, also owned the van. He was not tested for alcohol, she said.
“We don’t expect any charges for him,” Selman-Willis said.
Bista has been released from The Medical Center of Central Georgia. Three of his passengers underwent surgery Wednesday. The other surviving passengers were kept at the hospital Wednesday for observation, she said… Read more here
That article and an article in The Herald-Gazette newspaper in Barnesville indicates that the crash resulted from the failure of one of the van’s tires. I’m wondering if this was similarly due to tire over-inflation, as in the June 2009 Arizona (Texas Canyon) passenger van crash. In that tragedy six Burundian refugees resettled by IRC died; 11 others sustained injuries. The IRC was working with a company called Eurofresh that employed the refugees. In that case, the van was overloaded with passengers, the driver sped up to an estimated 80 mph to pass another vehicle, and a overinflated tire blew-out and the van hit a guide rail, resulting in a rollover.
How many of these tragedies must we have before we start doing something differently? It may just be a matter of regularly observing and checking tire inflation. On the other hand if any new, tiny leak or picking up a nail, or a blowout from an over-pressured tire, means that these top-heavy vehicles will lose control and roll, why do people continue to fully load these vans with refugee client passengers? Are resettlement agencies advising these refugees to keep tire pressure at correct levels and to not fully load them with passengers? If not, these tragedies will continue unabated.
**UPDATE** — Five injured victims discharged from hospital, two still critical, two have a hand amputated (Bhutan News Service). A commenter writes that [Sheriff's Office?] claims that it seems that none of the passengers was wearing seat belt.
Posted in Atlanta, Burundian, Georgia, meatpacking industry, Nepali Bhutanese, passenger van roll-over, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA), safety, transportation | Tagged: Atlanta, bhutanese, Burundian refugees, Chamlagai, Chevrolet 3500, Chhetri, chicken processing, Church World Service, CWS, Decatur, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, georgia, I-75, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Ken Briggs, Kharka B. Chhetri, Kharka Chhetri, meatpacking, Nepalese refugees, Nepali-Bhutanese, passenger van crash, Perdue, Perry, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, RRISA, Texas Canyon, Tucson, Tula Chamlagai, Tula R. Chamlagai | Leave a Comment »
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