Rollover accidents seem to be a rising problem in Europe and therefore the systematic of this accident scenario should be investigated. Based on statistical investigations on major European accident databases for different countries a series of 73 real world rollover accidents was analysed. These cases were reconstructed using PC-Crash and preliminary categorised using a modified US-based rollover classification. In a first step, the rollover events were reconstructed from the point of conflict to the vehicle's rest position. The vehicles kinematics as well as its linear and rotational velocities were derived. In a second step typical velocity characteristics as well as kinematics were identified and the events categorised according to these criteria. Based on the results four main categories were defined, covering all reconstructed accidents. This categorisation was based on mechanical parameters (rotatory and translatory kinematical data of the vehicle). Significant differences can be seen for different scenarios for the "first phase of rollover". (A) Paper to the 1st International ESAR Conference on 3rd/4th September 2004 at Hannover Medical School (Germany), Session: Regulation, Consumer Aspects and Methodologies - Part II. For the covering abstract see ITRD D355457.
Samenvatting