United Methodists hear warnings; some keep rolling
By Annette Bender
In November 2001, Holston Chancellor Jay Garrison met with the cabinet to discuss the need to eliminate all 15-passenger vans in the conference. No conference-wide policies were established, just as the United Methodist Church has no policies regulating the use of multi-passenger vans.
However, liability and safety issues are so evident that some officials can't rationalize the risk of continuing to use 15-passenger vans, especially to transport children.
"For a lot of churches, it's a financial issue," Garrison said, referring to reluctance of some congregations to replace their trusty old vans with newer, safer models. "But if you have to start defending a lawsuit, that's also a financial issue."
"We don't have an official United Methodist Church policy. Churches are free to do whatever they want," said Dan Gary, associate general counsel in the General Council on Finance and Administration's Evanston, Ill., office. "But churches do need a heads up on this."
Many Holston churches already have heeded warnings from the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA). First Broad Street United Methodist Church in Kingsport District removed the back seats on two 15-passenger vans, converting them to 11-passenger vans. The Rev. Jack Edwards says the church is altogether "phasing out" the use of the converted vans. "We have one 25-passenger bus," he said.
Garrison's home church, Fountain City UMC in Knoxville District, replaced its older vans with newer, safer models. In January 2003, Cokesbury UMC, also in Knoxville, established a policy (no more than nine passengers, restriction of travel to 150-mile radius) that all but eliminated van use by most groups. Cokesbury frequently relies on carpooling and rented buses for travel.
At Glen Alpine UMC in Kingsport District, leaders have restricted potential van drivers to a few "responsible" people and require all children to wear seat belts. Otherwise, the eight-year-old van has a full schedule -- loaded with children for after-school trips to the church, loaded with adults for annual mission trips to Mexico.
"As far as the van being dangerous, I suppose it is," said the Rev. John Toney, Glen Alpine pastor. "We're aware of the risks, but financially, we're like some churches that can't do away with [the van] to get a bus."
The Rev. Charles Ledger, pastor at South Bristol UMC, Abingdon District, has not served any churches owning vans. But he recently retired after 30 years as an educator, and he, too, knows the dilemma faced by leaders who have to move large groups of people from one place to another with limited funds.
"It created an inconvenience, because we had to send three vehicles sometimes instead of one," Ledger said. "But the safety issues would seem to outweigh that inconvenience."
While federal law prohibits the sale of 15-passenger vans for the school-related transport of high-school age and younger students, no such prohibition exists for vehicles to transport college-age students or other passengers, according to the NHTSA. The result is that churches fall in a gray area and must use their own judgement about multi-passenger van use, experts say.
The General Council on Finance and Administration provides a sample van policy and other risk-management information at www.gcfa.org, or call (847) 425-6560. Other van safety information is available on the NHTSA site: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ or call 1-888-327-4236.
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