Analysis of rollover accident factors and injury causation

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Huelke, Donald F.¹; Marsh, IV, Joseph C.²; Sherman, Harold W.²

Analysis of rollover accident factors and injury causation

16th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM)

Affiliations

¹Medical School, The University of Michigan

²Highway Safety Research Institute, The University of Michigan
Abstract

One of the most violent automobile accidents in terms of occupant injury exposure is the rollover crash. In this environment the most consistently noted damaged area of the vehicle has been roof crush. Hence, it has been hypothesized that the prevention of significant roof crush will result in reduced injury severity. An analysis was made of the clinical accident investigation reports of 249 rollover crashes out of over 2,500 accident cases available. The results of the study disclosed that average occupant injuries in rollovers are at the lower end of the injury severity scale and are similar in severity to occupants in all other types of crashes. However, twice as many fatal injuries occur in rollovers than in all accidents and two-thirds of these fatalities are due to unrestrained occupant ejection. From these data it would appear that containment of occupants within the vehicle would provide a significant reduction of injury severity levels, and that reducing roof crush in rollover accidents will be of little significance in injury severity reduction.

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Cited By (15)

Year	Entry
1989	Kahane CJ. An Evaluation of Door Locks and Roof Crush Resistance of Passenger Car: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards 206 and 216. Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; November 1989. NHTSA Technical Report DOT HS 807 489.
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2005	Padmanaban J, Husher S. Occupant injury experience in rollover crashes: an in-depth review of NASS/CDS data. In: 49th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 12-14, 2005; Boston, MA.103-118.
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2014	Lessley DJ, Riley P, Zhang Q, Foltz P, Overby B, Heltzel S, Sochor M, Crandall J, Kerrigan JR. Occupant kinematics in laboratory rollover tests: PMHS response. Stapp Car Crash J. November 2014;58:251-316.
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2003	Viano DC. Seat influences on female neck responses in rear crashes: a reason why women have higher whiplash rates. Traffic Inj Prev. 2003;4(3):228-239.