Could More Lives Be Saved With a Different Rollover Test?

Dec. 13, 2006 — -- Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety have revealed a rollover test that shows how dangerous some vehicles are in rollover crashes. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data shows that last year 10,816 people died in rollover crashes and auto safety advocates say that has to change.

The roof crash test, called the Jordan Rollover System, puts a vehicle on a spit and moves the pavement underneath. This allows engineers to apply the same amount of force on the vehicle again and again, making it a repeatable test. This is important because in order to have scientifically sound data a test must be repeatable. Public Citizen says this is test is "proof positive that a dynamic, repeatable test exists."

With vehicles donated by State Farm insurance, engineers rolled a number of vehicles one being the Volvo XC90. In test video you can see how well the Volvo does with minimal intrusion into the cab of the vehicle (3.2 inches.) Not so with the Ford Explorer … on the second roll of the vehicle the far pillar the second side to hit the roof deforms in to the vehicle severely (11.5 inches.) Engineers said that an occupant in the Explorer would have suffered "catastrophic" injuries.

Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, said that "NHTSA has once again failed the public" by not adopting a more dynamic roof crush standard. The governments current rule is a static test with pressure applied at 1.5 times the vehicles weight. Safety advocates say this over 30-year-old rule is week and saves very few lives. The government has been working to upgrade this rule with a slightly stronger static test, but safety advocates say the proposed upgrade would save only 13 to 44 lives a year and that most vehicles, over 68%, already meet the proposed standard.

Claybrook and others say that the JRS test on the Volvo shows that automakers can make stronger roofs, and they estimate the cost would be minimal about $100 per vehicle.