The objective of this paper is to describe the developments that provide the basis for predicting new car occupant protection in real-world rollovers.

An analytical technique has been developed for predicting a vehicle’s dynamic occupant protection performance at any severity from a Jordan Rollover System (JRS) 50-vehicle rollover test database;​ static test roof strength, stiffness and elasticity data;​ inertial-influenced impact pitch orientation;​ size, roll moment and geometry dimensions;​ and occupant protection features. Only sampling, updating and verification of the JRS database will be necessary to reflect innovative construction and protection techniques until dynamic testing is implemented.

A noteworthy finding of this study was that reducing a vehicle’s major radius (i.e., its shape at the windshield) was more effective in reducing rollover deaths and injuries than increasing roof strength-toweight ratio (SWR) above 3.0.