TY - JOUR PY - 2004// TI - Testing and injury potential analysis of rollovers with narrow object impacts JO - Biomedical sciences instrumentation A1 - Meyer, Stephanie E. A1 - Forrest, Steve A1 - Herbst, Brian A1 - Hayden, Joshua A1 - Orton, Tia A1 - Sances, Anthony A1 - Kumaresan, Srirangam SP - 395 EP - 400 VL - 40 IS - N2 - Recent statistics highlight the significant risk of serious and fatal injuries to occupants involved in rollover collisions due to excessive roof crush. The government has reported that in 2002. Sports Utility Vehicle rollover related fatalities increased by 14% to more than 2400 annually. 61% of all SUV fatalities included rollovers [1]. Rollover crashes rely primarily upon the roof structures to maintain occupant survival space. Frequently these crashes occur off the travel lanes of the roadway and, therefore, can include impacts with various types of narrow objects such as light poles, utility poles and/or trees. A test device and methodology is presented which facilitates dynamic, repeatable rollover impact evaluation of complete vehicle roof structures with such narrow objects. These tests allow for the incorporation of Anthropomorphic Test Dummies (ATDs) which can be instrumented to measure accelerations, forces and moments to evaluate injury potential. High-speed video permits for detailed analysis of occupant kinematics and evaluation of injury causation. Criteria such as restraint performance, injury potential, survival space and the effect of roof crush associated with various types of design alternatives, countermeasures and impact circumstances can also be evaluated. In addition to presentation of the methodology, two representative vehicle crash tests are also reported. Results indicated that the reinforced roof structure significantly reduced the roof deformation compared to the production roof structure. LA - SN - 0067-8856 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -