(Edited to post this article I ran across years ago. Reason for saving article in first place was because a local guy I barley knew.)
RV Crash Deaths Under Investigation
Lack Of Crash Tests For Luxury Motor Homes Blamed Braking problems, collapsing walls and poorly secured cabinets: These are the RV industry's deadliest secrets.
We know because KIRO Team 7 Investigators just spent months analyzing hundreds of fatal luxury motor home crashes both nationwide and here in the Pacific Northwest.
Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne exposes how some loose safety standards are turning fun, family camping outings into trips to the morgue.
Federal law requires crash and rollover tests for cars, SUVs, semi-trucks and even charter buses. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration just conducted a new series of bus tests last month. The explosion of glass and crunch of metal are tools that guide new safety improvement.
Why, then, did KIRO Team 7 Investigators discover some of the biggest, most expensive motor homes on the road are exempt?
Peggy and Richard Young loved to camp in their 28-foot motor home, often taking their dog Mitzy to favorite spots along Washington's beach-front state parks.
On the way home one day in 2005, Richard took the corner of a highway onramp a little fast and tipped the RV over. It crumpled--trapping him inside.
Halsne: "We're looking at structural integrity. It looks to me ..."
Peggy Young: "It was a mess wasn't it?"
Halsne: "That the roof just didn't hold up."
Peggy Young: "No! All it is, is fiberglass. These motor homes are only fiberglass. They had the wood framing, you know, thin wood framing, but they're just fiberglass. There's nothing there to keep anything like this from happening."
Richard came out of the low-speed flip-and-roll with a brain bleed. He died 11 days later. Peggy just couldn't believe how easily their Class A RV fell apart and still wonders if a few simple safety standards could have saved his life.
Peggy Young: "They have some incredibly strong materials now, very high-tech and I don't see why they couldn't put in some kind of reinforcement that goes across and around?"
KIRO Team 7 Investigators used a computer to analyze two federal databases filled with more than 5,000 RV accident, safety and mechanical deficiency reports. Summaries like:
"VEHICLE WAS COMING AROUND A CURVE AND THE BRAKES FAILED"
"2 DEAD -- HIT TREE AT A SLOW RATE OF SPEED, 34 MPH. THE OCCUPANT COMPARTMENT DISINTEGRATED"
and
"RV DISINTEGRATED AND ONLY THE CHASSIS REMAINED"
made the Class A motor home stand out -- and not in a good way.
Class A's are defined by their flat-nose front, open seating and tremendous length.
JD Gallant has been called the Ralph Nader of motor homes. He has investigated countless fatal RV crashes and authors a top-selling RV consumer buying guide. He has strong opinions regarding the safety of the Class A.
“You need to realize that when you drive a Class A motor home, in case of an accident, you've increased greatly your risk of death, the driver and the passenger,” said Gallant.
He says the government should start mandating front-end crash tests and stronger rollover protections if we want people to stop dying in these massive machines.
"We know from accidents, Chris, what's happening. The industry isn't into studying Class A accidents. They just aren't into it. If they did, if RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Association) would study Class A accidents, every Class A accident, put them up on the wall and study these Class A accidents, and say 'oh we've got to make improvement here.' They could do it. And they'd reduce the deaths by 80 to 90 percent,” said Gallant.
We called numerous RV manufacturers to respond to this investigation. Only one took us up on our offer: Western RV in Yakima, the maker of the $250,000 Alpine Coach.
Vice President Burk Morgan says his company sells safety.
He adds that the government requires front-end crash and brake tests for the empty chassis only. Once all those studs and sidewalls and TVs get installed, it's up to each manufacturer to decide how best to hold parts together in a crash. Our data shows the Alpine Coach design does hold up exceptionally well.
Morgan says there’s a reason for that.
"The entire roof and walls are solid structures. They're all aircraft-quality aluminum tub-welded frame with polystyrene block insulation that's bonded together to create a solid structure,” said Morgan.
Consumers might not yet be ready to pay extra for those safety features, as two weeks after we shot the interview, Western RV closed its doors.
Automotive safety engineer Keith Friedman of Friedman Research Corporation says the costs of added safety measures are the real reason many RV makers are still choosing to use antiquated construction techniques.
"Put a steel platform out there. Put some wood on it and start nailing wood two-by-fours to it or screwing on some aluminum studs. Those things are not going to carry the loads when you rollover. The platform is going to sit there and the stuff you attached on top is just going to fall over," said Friedman.
Lifelong RV owner John Sandstrom isn't going to let that happen to him.
"It's big. It weighs a lot. You can easily get yourself in trouble, whether maneuvering in a parking lot or changing lanes on the freeway, you have to be aware of what's going on 360 degrees around you," said Sandstrom.
Sandstrom recently paid top dollar for custom-designed safety features including a third set of wheels for stability, steel rollcage ribbing and a bulkhead behind his seat that prevents flying objects from hitting drivers if a crash does occur. That's something that the families of several dead RV drivers tell us they dearly wish was standard.
The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association had this to say about our research:
"NHTSA (The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) hasn't crash tested finished motor homes because they are fundamentally safe-- there simply haven't been enough deaths to warrant the cost of purchasing and testing these types of vehicles."
