A Comparison of Rollover Characteristics for Passenger Cars, Light Duty Trucks and Sport Utility Vehicles

The evaluation of a rollover accident requires the assessment of a large amount of information in order to completely analyze the accident and determine the vehicle dynamics throughout its roll sequence. This information includes the physical evidence available through examination of the accident site, the vehicle and any photographs or documentation of the accident scene.

Many times there is a lack of scene data available complicating a thorough evaluation of the vehicle path and roll distance during the rollover. Inspection of the vehicle reveals the minimum number of rolls the vehicle experienced during the rollover event, leaving the roll distance traveled as one of the many unknown variables.

This paper compares the roll distance, roll speed and number of rolls for dolly testing and real world rollovers.

An evaluation of the roll distance and number of rolls for passenger cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles is compiled and compared to one another. Relationships were found and discussed.