Rollover crashes are the most severe crash mode among all types of traffic crashes. They consist of sequential complex dynamic events with contributions of the vehicle, human, environmental elements, and their interactions. The aim of rollover crashworthiness analysis is to prevent or reduce the injury outcomes. Over the years, researchers have used a wide range of statistical, experimental and computational approaches to assess the impacts of those elements and their interactions on rollover outcomes. This article presents a review of the literature pertaining to rollover crashes. It is by no means a complete review of all rollover literature available; however, tries to cover many of the most frequently cited papers. In addition, due to the lack of available crashworthiness studies on commercial vehicles, this study focussed mainly on the research findings related to the passenger cars. In this review, rollover crash studies were characterised based on the Haddon matrix to provide a broad perspective on rollover crashworthiness status. First, the characteristics of rollover crashes were definedfrom the vehicle point of view. Second, the research findings were reviewed based on the following point of views: a vehicle (structural assessment), human (injury assessment), occupant protection systems (tools to control the interaction between occupants and vehicles) and environmental factors (road characteristics and road conditions). Third, based on research approaches, studies were classified into statistical (field data), experimental, and computational analyses. The recent development and findings of each method, were presented and the strengths and weaknesses of each approach to address the rollover aspects were discussed. The available studies related to commercial vehicles were also presented in the separate section. Finally, reviewed papers were categorised based on research approaches and contributed rollover factors and opportunities for future research were discussed.

In this study, we selected four real-world rear-end crash scenarios with different crash characteristics. The vehicles involved in those crashes were not equipped with any crash avoidance systems. We then used the accident reconstruction method to build those crash scenarios in PC-Crash software. Then, different FCW/AEB safety algorithms have been defined for a subject vehicle model in each crash scenario and each scenario was simulated for a set of input parameters such as vehicle speed, brake intensity, and driver reaction time. The range and distribution of input parameters were extracted from the related field crash data and available literature. A total number of 16000 simulations have been conducted which produced input-output datasets for further investigations. Finally, the effects of input parameters on simulation outcomes including crash occurrence, AEB activation, injury risk, and vehicle damage have been quantified using the Boruta algorithm. The results indicated that the overall effectiveness of the AEB system was a 57% reduction of rear-end crashes, a 52% reduction of injury severity (striking vehicle’s passengers), and a 47% reduction of damages for striking vehicles. The results also showed that the available AEB algorithms were more effective for the average speed equal to or less than 80 kmph. The speed of the subject vehicle, type of AEB algorithm, sensor detection range, and driver reaction time were the most important parameters on crash outcomes. In addition, the results indicated that the performance of FCW had a direct impact on the effectiveness of the AEB system for the integrated FCW + AEB system.

A systematic approach was proposed to assess vehicle accident risk over sea-crossing bridges under strong winds. The annual frequency of an accident was evaluated as a risk index using the information on daily traffic volumes, the ratio of high-sided vehicles, and the long-term distribution of the speed and direction of the wind at the bridge site. The approach considered the effect that deck shapes and road alignments exert on vehicle stability. The risk index was estimated by accounting for the entire road sections of the examined bridge, including approach spans. The proposed method successfully identified the vulnerable positions along the bridge and the vehicle types. The application on a sea-crossing bridge demonstrated the usefulness of the proposed risk-assessment approach in determining a preferable mitigation strategy with less traffic intervention or minimized windscreen installation by quantitative comparisons between risk indices of several possible measures.

Rollover crashes of buses are usually associated with multiple impacts that can result in complex interactions between passengers and a bus superstructure. Although there have been a few field data studies that provide some insights into occupant injuries (e.g. severity and distribution of injuries) during the real-world bus rollover crash, because they had used post-crash data, the occupant kinematics and injury mechanisms were not completely detailed in their results. Based on a literature review, available numerical and experimental studies on a bus rollover safety have mainly focused on structural integrity rather than considering occupant responses in their assessment. In addition, their results about occupant responses in bus rollover crashes show some discrepancies in terms of the estimated injury distribution, severity, and causes. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to provide a more detailed understanding of the occupant kinematics and associated injury risk during the ECE R66 tilt table bus rollover test using validated finite element (FE) models. The ECE R66 tilt table rollover was simulated using a full finite element model of the bus. A 50th percentile male Hybrid III Anthropomorphic test device (ATD) and EuroSID-2re FE models were selected to simulate the occupant’s motion. Each ATD was seated adjacent to the impacted side wall and restrained with a 2-point seatbelt. Simulation parameters included two impact surface friction values and different side window conditions. The results indicated that both ATD estimated the highest injury risk when the partial ejection occurred. They predicted a similar injury risk for the head and thorax. The ES-2re estimated a very low risk of neck injury in all simulations, whereas the Hybrid III estimated the high risk of a neck injury. Finally, recommendations to potentially reduce the injuries were provided and possible future works were suggested.