Bus superstructures may soon be subject to new rollover safety requirements. Increased rollover safety must be achieved with minimum weight or cost penalty;​ hence, optimisation has a significant practical relevance.

This paper demonstrates the possibility of predicting the collapse performance of a bus superstructure by a completely theoretical model. The work described also created a basis for the option offered by the new regulations that allows type approval by calculation combined with some component tests. It also shows how a safety structure can be optimised from the weight or cost point of view by means of a special computer program.