GNS In The News

Child's Death Spurs Quest For Van Safety Empty Room, Obscure Law Propel Mother's Crusade

MICHELLE R. DAVIS, Staff Writer

Lisa Strebler sits in her son Jacob's room amid the 6-year-old's collection of toy trucks, the stuffed penguin he snuggled up to at night, the baby blanket he called "Sheepy."

Instead of vrooming across the carpet or lying clutched in the arms of a sleeping child, the toys remind Strebler and her husband, Mike, of their loss.

Jacob was killed in a July 12, 1994, van accident. On Tuesday, attorneys announced the settlement of a lawsuit over the accident.

Lisa Strebler wants to keep other parents from living her family's nightmare. She's campaigning to educate the public on student-transportation laws and the potential danger of vans. She wants people to know it's illegal, under federal law, to sell new vans to schools.

"Mike and I are about ensuring that no parent suffers this outcome," Strebler said. "Jake's death was preventable. Had Jake been in a school bus, he would be here today."

Waves of pain. The Heathwood Hall Episcopal School van was taking nine children to swimming lessons when a truck driver ran a red light and hit the van at Bluff Road and Beltline Boulevard.

For the Streblers, pain came in waves. First it was Jacob's death. Next it was the discovery that Pulliam Ford Co. sold a van to Heathwood Hall despite the law.

Finally it was the realization that when company President Bob Pulliam found out about the law, he told Heathwood officials several times, including the day before the accident.

The Streblers' attorneys settled lawsuits against the trucking company and truck driver who hit the van for $1 million. A settlement with Heathwood Hall and Pulliam Ford is confidential.

Attorney Richard Gergel, representing the Streblers along with attorney Isadore Lourie, said the total settlement is the largest in the history of South Carolina for the death of a child.

Lisa Strebler is planning a crusade against vans. She and her husband will take out advertisements in educational and automotive trade publications informing people of the law. She will speak at conferences and lobby to make van-safety laws tougher.

The federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act says it is illegal to sell new vans to schools or day-care centers with educational missions, although it is legal for the schools to use them. But Gergel said that's inconsistent.

"Should a school use a vehicle that someone has to break federal safety laws to sell?" he said. "You've got to be out of your head to do that."

Gergel said the settlement clearly shows a school is liable if it does use a van in transportation and a child is hurt.

Doc Morgan, attorney for Heathwood Hall, disagreed. Morgan said it was perfectly legal for Heathwood to use the van. He had experts ready to testify at a trial that Jacob would have been killed even if he was in a school bus.

The settlement "did not create liability to Heathwood Hall," Morgan said. "The statute did not apply to Heathwood Hall."

'Some good from this.' At the Streblers' house, Jacob's room is still filled with little-boy toys.

The closet is stacked with puzzles and games, the floor is cluttered by a bicycle and a bright Tonka plastic lawnmower. Everywhere are pictures of the blond-haired boy.

Atop Jacob's bedspread are a pair of worn sneakers, the bag of clothes Jacob had with him on his van trip to the pool and a box of tissues. Lisa Strebler fingers a striped baseball cap Jacob wore only a few times before his death. The white cap is still clean.

"Jake's not here, so the energy I had from mothering him ... is still there," Strebler said. "I have to use it for some good. There has to be some good from this."

Strebler says no groups of children should ride in vans - whether it's from schools, day cares or camps. Buses, large and small, are safer, she said.

While Gergel was unable to find statistics on van safety, he culled government databases to calculate his own figures. In 1994, when the accident happened, Gergel estimated that a school bus was 170 times safer than a passenger vehicle, which includes cars and vans. Since 1980, only one person on a school bus has been killed in South Carolina, Gergel said.

Donald Tudor, who heads the state's school-transportation program, said buses are safer. They are reinforced to withstand impact, and the seats are padded to protect children who might be thrown against them during an accident. An aisle down the middle of buses creates a break that prevents children from being tossed from one side to another, Tudor said.

"The compartment of a van is not even close to the strength of a school-bus compartment," he said.

Across the state, vans are ferrying students to and from schools, church programs and day cares, Tudor said. But the U.S. Justice Department does not enforce the Motor Vehicle Safety Act by punishing car dealers who sell new vans to schools, Tudor said.

"You know the law is being broken," he said. "But unless something like this occurs, then the vendor doesn't have any punishment come their way."

The crusade. Lisa Strebler's message is already reaching parents.

On Wednesday, after reading a story about Jacob's death, Deborah Pulley drafted a letter to the Richland County recreation camp her 10-year-old daughter, NaKeshia, attends at Forest Lake Park. The camp uses vans and a green bus to take children on weekly field trips.

"I put a letter in the mail today saying I didn't want my child to ride on the van, but she could ride on the bus," Pulley said. "I feel more secure with a bus that big."

Pulley said she was probably "paranoid," but for good reason.

It was just chance that her daughter wasn't on the Heathwood Hall van the day Jacob Strebler died. NaKeshia. who attended the Heathwood Hall summer program, had her swimming lesson the week before.

Strebler said parents should pressure schools not to use vans. "It would be so easy for the public to perceive that this happened just because someone ran a red light," she said. "It's much bigger than that."

Michelle Davis covers the state judicial system. She can be reached at 771-8484 or by fax at 771-8430.

THE MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY ACT

* A 1974 federal law relating to school buses prohibits the sale of new vans, seating 10 or more passengers, that would transport children to a school or organization with an educational mission.

It is legal, though, to sell the vans to day-care centers, churches and camps. And it is legal for any organization to operate those vans.

The sale of used vans is not restricted.

If a child is riding in a van, it's a parent's choice whether to use that transportation.

Lisa Strebler, whose son died in a van crash in 1994, encourages parents to lobby schools for vehicles, like small school buses, that meet federal safety requirements.

Reprinted from The State newspaper
June 26, 1997