Rollover Of Heavy Commercial Vehicles

The state-of-the-art understanding of rollover of the commercial vehicle is reviewed. Accident statistics are presented which highlight the severity and lethal nature of rollover crashes. Physical and statistical evidence for the linkage between vehicle roll stability and the actual occurrence of rollover accidents is presented. The fundamentals of static roll stability are described in detail and then enhanced with discussion of dynamic considerations of the rollover process. The text concludes with a discussion of the evolving use of intelligent electronic systems and active vehicle control for reducing the occurrence of rollover. Appendices include a bibliography of the literature on heavy-vehicle rollover.

The objective of this report is to identify known relationships between commercial vehicle safety and crash causation factors and to prepare a synthesis of safety implications of oversize/overweight (OS/OW) commercial vehicles. This information can be used to support commercial vehicle enforcement and permitting practices and justify expenditures and investments on size and weight enforcement to enhance safety. In producing this report, insight was gained into the impacts of truck size and weight (TSW) regulations through three case studies. The state of practice in estimating large truck crash rates is complicated because of the many configurations and the wide range of possible weights for any particular configuration. This report highlights four primary findings regarding the contributions of OS/OW to commercial vehicle crashes found by its researchers.

TRB's Commercial Truck and Bus Safety Synthesis Program (CTBSSP) Synthesis 3: Highway/Heavy Vehicle Interaction reports on the safety interactions of commercial trucks and buses with highway features and on highway improvements that can be made to improve the safety of heavy vehicle operations.

Vehicle rollover accidents have been a serious safety problem for the last three decades. Although rollovers are a small percentage of all traffic accidents, they do account for a large proportion of severe and fatal injuries. Specifically, some large passenger vehicles, such as large vans, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicles, are more prone to rollover accidents with a high center of gravity (CG) and narrow track width. Vehicle rollover accidents may be grouped into two categories: tripped and untripped rollovers. A tripped rollover commonly occurs when a vehicle skids and digs its tires into soft soil or hits a tripping mechanism such as a curb with a sufficiently large lateral velocity. On the other hand, the untripped rollover is induced by extreme maneuvers during critical driving situations, such as excessive speed during cornering, obstacle avoidance, and severe lane change maneuver. In these situations, the forces at the tire-road contact point are large enough to cause the vehicle to roll over. Furthermore, vehicle rollover may occur due to external disturbances such as side-wind and steering excitation. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the dynamic stability and control of tripped and untripped vehicle rollover so as to avoid vehicle rollover accidents. In this book, different dynamic models are used to describe the vehicle rollover under both untripped and special tripped situations. From the vehicle dynamics theory, rollover indices are deduced, and the dynamic stabilities of vehicle rollover are analyzed. In addition, some active control strategies are discussed to improve the anti-rollover performance of the vehicle.

Collision Reconstruction Methodologies - Volume 6A - The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction. Collision Reconstruction Methodologies Volumes 1-12 bring together seminal SAE technical papers surrounding advancements in the crash reconstruction field. Topics featured in the series include: • Night Vision Study and Photogrammetry • Vehicle Event Data Recorders • Motorcycle, Heavy Vehicle, Bicycle and Pedestrian Accident Reconstruction The goal is to provide the latest technologies and methodologies being introduced into collision reconstruction - appealing to crash analysts, consultants and safety engineers alike.