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CONVERSION VANS: By Edward M. Ricci, Esq. 
Consumers purchase tens of thousands of conversion vans each year. Lured by luxurious homelike features, motorists are led to feel as safe in their vans as they are in their living rooms. But security is an illusion. Omitted from the sleek sales literature and shiny interiors are some dark realities: Conversion vans are dangerous death traps. Automakers dodge responsibility for crashworthiness and lull consumers into a false sense of safety while government regulators fail to mandate appropriate standards. INFERIOR WORKMANSHIP and MATERIALS Unlike other motor vehicles, conversion vans are often hybrids. Although they are made by major automobile manufacturers and sold by their authorized dealers, the conversion work is often performed by small, local converting companies with little or no automotive engineering or crashworthiness expertise. These companies are rarely known to the buyer. Many conversion vans have raised roofs. The converters will cut off the welded steel top and the welded cross beams which are used to hold the roof in place to provide rigidity and structure to the van. They replace them with a raised fiberglass top attached to the van with nothing more than sheet-metal screws. The fiberglass roof provides virtually no crash protection in a rollover. Unlike steel, which is ductal and can bend and stretch when loaded, fiberglass when it strikes the ground will easily fracture. Real-world crashes confirm that the raised fiberglass roofs in conversion vans simply pop off because the screws used to attach them to the vehicle pull through the fiberglass or shear off. The automotive industry stopped using screws in roof construction in 1935. Welded roofs have been the industry standard for vehicle occupant compartments ever since. The auto industry makes no effort to demand that its converters preserve the integrity of a van's safety when an original factory roof is removed. Detroit does not require converters to use a raised steel roof or any steel bracing to keep a fiberglass roof on a van in a foreseeable rollover crash. The situation is made worse by van converters enlarging the window openings, in some cases all the way to the floor boards, increasing the area for ejection in the event of a crash. To add to the danger of the situation, neither the auto industry nor the converters use bonded laminated glass in any of the side or rear windows to reduce the risk of ejection. Conversion vans are not bound by the same federal safety standards as automobiles. Van manufacturers and van converters have virtual immunity from federal safety standards for the changes in these vehicles. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) do not address roof strength, roof construction, materials or methods of attachment, nor are there any rollover standards for vans. Van manufacturers and van converters are not required to conduct any rollover testing of fiberglass raised roofs. The industry would vigorously fight any attempt by the government in this area because fiberglass roofs as currently made simply cannot stay attached to vans in any rollovers at foreseeable highway speeds. At the present time, the federal government mandates regulations for glazing materials (FMVSS 205) and window mounting (FMVSS 212) for front windshields only. There are no requirements that conversion vans provide the same level of protection on side windows that is required on front windshields. FMVSS 205 and 212 clearly recognize that windows should help keep occupants inside a motor vehicle but neither the government nor the industry makes any effort to provide this type of protection to the motoring public, largely families with children who vacation in conversion vans. This failure to act is all the more scandalous since it has long been known that the chances of death soar enormously if an occupant is ejected from a vehicle during a crash. According to one government study, 83 percent of van occupants do not wear seat belts (some industry estimates are even higher). In light of the psychology used by van marketers, these statistics are not surprising. Conversion vans are equipped with a virtually limitless array of luxury options: upholstered captains chairs, beds, curtains, simulated wood consoles, VCRs, televisions, audio systems, even refrigerators. These features all suggest that occupants are not riding in a car. They can move around and walk around the van while it is travelling down the highway. Who rests in bed or watches TV wearing a seat belt? It is no surprise that most van occupants are lulled into not wearing their seat belts while riding in conversion vans. WHO is RESPONSIBLE? Despite controlling the access and distribution of these vans, automakers refuse to accept responsibility for the ills wrought by van modifications. Not surprisingly, the problem is rooted in a desire to maximize profits. The major automobile manufacturers do not want to undertake the capital costs of developing raised steel roofs or laminated and bonded side windows. Because of their small size, most conversion companies are not in a position to even consider developing raised steel roofs or laminated bonded side windows. Neither the automakers nor the converters have exhibited any desire to conduct a sensible testing program that would document the necessity and benefits of such improvements. When raised-top conversion vans are involved in rollover accidents with resulting roof detachment, ejection, injury and death, it is often the converter who bears the brunt of the lawsuit. Detroit has developed clever conversion van programs that mask its responsibility. Despite the fact that the vans are sold through authorized dealers of the major automobile manufacturers, the van conversion programs create the illusion that the converters are truly independent contractors not beholden to Detroit. The reality is quite the contrary. Detroit creates the programs and sets the rules under which the converters can work. Detroit often uses a bailment scheme where the vans are entrusted to the converters. But just before safety is removed by enlarging the windows or cutting out the steel roofs, ownership in the vans is transferred to "independent" authorized dealers thus removing Detroit's fingerprints from the cannibalized vehicles. A careful review of how conversion van programs work reveals that Detroit effectively controls the entire process, but like the Wizard of Oz, hides behind a screen so that its identity is hidden from the public. Detroit is apparently willing to increase its sales of conversion vans by violating its own internal company standards for crashworthiness. The same major automobile manufacturers and their approved conversion companies are even willing to degrade the minimal safety that vans otherwise provide in order to increase sales. Apparently, neither Detroit nor the lackeys who do its bidding in the conversion van industry have any qualms of conscience in deceiving American motorists into thinking that they are as safe in conversion vans as they are in their own living rooms. ENDNOTES: |
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