There has been considerable experimental research of cars crashing into roadside curbs such as Transport and Road Research laboratory experiments of the 1950s and the Californian tests in 1957. This paper uses all the published information to establish a relationship to estimate the ability of a curb to safely redirect a vehicle.
A curb's ability to redirect a vehicle depends upon the speed and angle of impact, the surface material, if it is wet or dry and the radius of the impacting tire. There are other factors such as the aggressiveness of the tire tread and the tire pressure that are thought to be important but have not been incorporated into the analytical procedure.
The equations may be used in accident reconstruction to estimate a minimum vehicle's speed to mount a curb.