About 2:30 p.m. on February 10, 2000, a 1999 Ford E-350 XLT 15-passenger bus (van), rented from Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company (Enterprise), departed Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View) near Hempstead, Texas. The van was carrying a track coach, an athletic trainer, and eight student athletes, en route to a men’s indoor track meet at Arkansas State University in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a distance of approximately 480 miles. Estimated arrival time was midnight. A 21-year-old student athlete, said to be familiar with the route, was driving, and the van was traveling north on Texas State Highway 43, a two-lane highway near Karnack, Texas (approximately 270 miles from Hempstead). About 6:50 p.m., the van was traveling at a police-estimated speed of approximately 82 mph in a posted 65-mph zone (nighttime) as it approached a northbound Jeep Cherokee (Jeep) that was signaling to turn left near the first entrance to a convenience store parking lot. It was dark, the weather was clear, and the road was dry. The highway did not have a left turn lane, and the Jeep was in the northbound travel lane. A van occupant sitting in the first row on the right, who had a clear view of the road ahead, later stated to the Texas Highway Patrol that the Jeep slowed while signaling to turn left, did not complete its left turn into the first entrance, remained in the northbound lane, and continued northbound. When the van driver attempted to pass the Jeep on the left from the southbound lane, the Jeep began its left turn into the second entrance of the convenience store, 174 feet beyond the first entrance. The van driver tried to reverse the passing action by swerving the van sharply to the right, and the van went out of control.
The Jeep driver said that he had not seen the van approaching from behind. He later stated to the Texas Highway Patrol that as he turned into the second entrance of the parking lot, he heard a noise, looked to his left, and “caught a glimpse of a vehicle that passed behind my vehicle.” He said that he saw the van “violently rolling” out of control. No contact between the van and the Jeep occurred.
A Texas Highway Patrol reconstruction team determined that the van yawed right, then left, dropped off the northbound pavement edge, and began overturning. The van traveled approximately 490 feet from where it began its yaw to where it came to its final position and about 265 feet from where it hit the pavement edge to where it came to rest. Evidence on the roadway indicated that the van flipped three full turns before coming to rest inverted.
The accident resulted in fatal injuries to the van driver and three of the five ejected occupants. The remaining six passengers, including the two other ejected occupants, received serious injuries. Postcrash toxicological testing of the van driver’s blood and urine specimens indicated no presence of alcohol or other drugs.
We determined that the probable cause of this accident was the excessive speed of the van, in combination with the operating maneuvers initiated by the van driver when he encountered the Jeep Cherokee; operating maneuvers by the Jeep Cherokee driver may also have been a factor. Contributing to the accident was the lack of oversight regarding the transportation of student athletes by the Prairie View A&M University. Contributing to the severity of the injuries were the failure of the State of Texas to require the use of restraints in all seating positions and the failure of the van passengers to use the available restraints.
