Rollover protection for occupants of heavy truck sleeper cabs

It is projected that over 900,000 long-haul sleeper cabs will be on the road by the year 2030. Approximately half of all heavy truck occupant deaths are due to rollovers. This paper considers current occupant sleeper cab rollover protection systems and reveals the results of representative crashes involving vehicles with these cabs. This paper also describes a virtual testing methodology for the evaluation of today's designs under rollover conditions, along with restraint tests involving both test dummies and humans. Finite element models are also discussed; results of various exemplar restraint configurations are introduced. These data strongly suggest that lateral restraint is critical for the safety of sleeper cab occupants in the event of a rollover accident.

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