Rollover - Crash test and accident analyses

Looking to accident occurrence in the US, the increasing figures for SUVs, vans and light trucks make rollover crashes also as an interesting point for European road traffic. Existing restraint systems, especially (wornl) seatbelts, protect the occupants even in case of a roll-over very effectively. In addition, potential of optimization is given by advanced supplementary protection systems and trigger algorithms fitted to special rollover demands. Also of interest is the behaviour of the vehicle structure under rollover induced loads. DEKRA in cooperation with OEMs and their suppliers developed a crash test matrix allowing to optimise their vehicles and safety systems, to define the trigger criterions and to verify and optimize the function. That way an all-embracing test program has come into being in combination with the existing tests for the structural rigidity.