Classification of rollovers according to crash severity

Digges, K.; Eigen, A.

Affiliations

²National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Abstract

NASS/CDS 1995-2004 was used to classify rollovers according to severity. The rollovers were partitioned into two classes – rollover as the first event and rollover preceded by an impact with a fixed or non-fixed object. The populations of belted and unbelted were examined separately and combined. The average injury rate for the unbelted was five times that for the belted. Approximately 21% of the severe injuries suffered by belted occupants were in crashes with harmful events prior to the rollover that produced severe damage to the vehicle. This group carried a much higher injury risk than the average. A planar damage measure in addition to the rollover measure was required to adequately capture the crash severity of this population. For rollovers as the first event, approximately 1% of the serious injuries to belted occupants occurred during the first quarter-turn. Rollovers that were arrested during the 1st quarter-turn carried a higher injury rate than average. The number of quarter-turns were grouped in various ways including the number of times the vehicle roof faces the ground (number of vehicle inversions). The number of vehicle inversions was found to be a statistically significant injury predictor for 78% of the belted and unbelted populations with MAIS 3+F injuries in rollovers. The remaining 22% required crash severity metrics in addition to the number of vehicle inversions.

Cited Works (2)

Year	Entry
2005	Digges K, Eigen AM, Dahdah S. Injury patterns in rollovers by crash severity. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
2003	Digges KH, Eigen AM. Crash attributes that influence the severity of rollover crashes. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.

Cited By (2)

Year	Entry
2007	Digges K, Eigen AM. Injuries in rollovers by crash severity. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2006	Digges KH, Eigen AM. The injury risk from objects impacted before and during rollovers. In: Proceedings of the 2006 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Impact. September 20-22, 2006; Madrid, Spain.385-388.