Development of Rollover Protective Structures for Mining Light Vehicles

This paper presents the authors’ work on developing Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) for light vehicles in mining and resources industries. Various international resource companies have identified rollover crashes of light vehicles (Pickups and SUV’s) as a serious problem for their own and contractor vehicles operating on their sites. The structural rollover protective systems that were used [and continue to be in some cases] were based on inadequate or no specific performance requirement(s) and resulted in a range of occupant protection outcomes. The authors developed and adopted structural requirements for rollover protection based on their; experience, research into rollover crashes, rollover protective systems, defined loading, intrusion and robustness criterion. The design criteria, analysis and testing processes used to develop the rollover protective structural systems are presented.