Truck Rollover Crushes
Truck Rollover Crushes
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TRUCK ROLLOVER CRUSHES
Introduction
There is a force that causes trucks to lean when they travel a long a curved path. This results to a rollover leading the truck to overturn. Trailers, especially tractor trailers are very vulnerable to such rollover accidents because of the unstable loads that are loaded into them and their center of gravity. From the studies involving large trucks undertaken by different researchers, many such accidents involves more than one truck and leads to at least one fatality. From the researches that have been done an estimated 10 percent of large truck accidents are always rollovers. A rollover can be defined as an accidental event that involves one or more vehicles turn about the longitudinal axis. The national projections of large truck accidents indicates that out of 140,000 accidents which are fatal, incapacitating, or non-capacitating injury crashes, an estimated 13000 would have been rollovers CITATION Her13 l 1033 (Herbst, 2013).
Rollovers are the deadliest crashes which occur with particular frequency on a freeway ramps and there are suggestions of the use of sensor activated warnings in order to detect unsafe approaches. The majority of these accidents are caused by driver errors, abrupt steering, excessive speeding in curves, sharpness misjudgments, drifting off road, physical impairment, or emotional reckless. There are also vehicle related problems which includes, heavy, badly distributed and unsecured loads, poorly maintained suspension or brakes, and under inflated tires. These are regarded as the responsibility of the driver to check.
Analysis has revealed that almost all the accidents result from failing to adjust speed to curves in the road, the problem with the load in transit, the brake conditions, the intersection points and conditions, and the road surface. Another crash contributor involves attention or other being inactive when driving, falling asleep or dozing when driving, and the driver being distracted. All these can lead to a situation of sudden direction change leading to rollover. Another contributor which is also deadly is steering, for example over steering to an extent leading to rollover, not being keen when steering to stay in lane, counter steering in order to remain on the road as a result of overcorrecting. The final contributor is loads, for example when the driver fails to put into consideration the height, weight and security of the vehicle and the loads.
There are instructions given to drivers on rollover prevention that comes in printed publications just like other truck driver trainings. The use of video should also be aimed at helping the truck drivers to recognize incipient rollovers and the currently available simulation would allow drivers to have an experience of the mistakes consequences without a risk.
Description of an Accident Involving Two Trucks in Mexico
There was a terrifying accident last month that occurred outside Albuquerque, New Mexico involving trailer that was transporting water and another semi-truck. According to the eye witness and the reports filed, the trailer that was transporting water was hit from the rear by another semi-truck spilling its contents on the road. This caused the second truck to overturn leading to total closure of the lanes l -40 westbound for many hours. There were no other vehicles involved in the accident. According to the eye witness, the truck carrying water was travelling westbound on the highway when the semi-truck collided with it from the rear. This caused the water tank to rapture spilling the contents on the road. The impact of the spill led to disconnection of the driver’s compartment of the second truck from the trailer causing the cabin to turn. However the driver of the truck that overturned managed to escape from the cabin with noon-life threatening minor injuries and was hospitalized.
A though this crush was relatively harmless, it was very frightening to the people that were involved and caused inconvenience to other commuters. This is an example of accidents involving trucks that occur on the American roads. It was not clear what might have led to the second truck hitting the water trailer from behind. Semi-trucks that always tow pressurized tanks carrying hazardous and flammable chemicals always get involved in such like collisions causing the chemicals to spill into the atmosphere and on to the road. Such chemicals are very dangerous and toxic and can cause devastating consequences. It becomes very difficult for a driver to escape the consequences of an accident caused by a semi-truck. However much a driver may want to avoid such accidents, it becomes very difficult. In this accident, only water was spilled and it had only minor consequences. However in cases where dangerous chemicals are spilled on the atmosphere and runway, the by standers who are innocent tend to suffer. The impact and the spills can cause serious injuries or even death to the innocent bystanders CITATION Ver12 l 1033 (Vernick, 2012).
The Common Causes of Tuck Rollovers and Suchlike Accidents
It is not vey clear what might have caused the driver from the other truck to hit the water trailer from behind but such like accidents and rollovers are always caused by something that increases the role movements about the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and are most likely overturning so quickly and also when one side of the vehicle is allowed to drop suddenly or rise very quickly. All these are as a result of an error from the part of the driver, condition of the vehicle or in some cases the conditions of the roads. These causes can be used as an object of preventive measures as elaborated below.
Speed- this is the biggest contributor to rollover accidents and crashes in the roads of United States of America. Speeding contributes about 45 percent of the rollover accidents and crushes and are attributed by travelling too fast. When analyzing deeply how speeding causes rollover, rollover occurs when the truck is being turned very fast than the cargo it is carrying by the front wheel. It gives a clear indication that the faster the faster the speed of the vehicle the greater the difference. The speeds are not as high as one would imagine but the speeds are unsafe for the combination of the vehicle and the road characteristics. Speeding is a greater contributor to accidents especially when an overloaded or poorly loaded truck exceeds the speed limit required.
Curves- in off road or on road ramps, handling curves is a major challenge to many drivers especially the truck drivers. Excess speed in handling curves by trailers is a major contributor to rollovers. In fact it contributes approximately 77 percent of the rollovers. There are reasons which lead drivers to exceed safe speed on curves. These reasons differ substantially depending on the driver. Misjudgment of the speed at which the curve should be approached and entered is the major cause of rollover among trucks and contributes over four-fifths of crashes that occur on curves. This problem seems to be contributed to by posted speed limits that may be too high for a loaded trailer to negotiate a bend. And a proposed solution is to lower speed limit at such locations.
Hurry-another problem that causes rollover in trucks is being too much in a hurry on the curves. The reason for haste is being too late, having other commitments, trying to beat another vehicle to the merge point and chronic impairment.
Anger- the action of other road users may be triggered by anger and by other truck drivers reacting of responding aggressively leading to rollover. This is not always a common contributor to rollover but it is worth mentioning because several accidents and truck rollovers have resulted from this.
Oversight-thee are safe speed limits that are always put in place to direct the drivers about sharp curves. Many speed related rollovers are as a result of driver ignorance of the posted limits. However many drivers always claim not to have noticed the posters. This excludes situations when the sight of the driver is not clear and when a driver perceive his/her own faulty judgment.
Loads-heavy loads that are too heavy not correctly fastened or packed too high poses a great danger not only to the driver but also to other road users and bystanders and are experienced mostly on the ramps and curves. Others also occur in land change and when there is a wheel that has dropped off a pavement. Overloading or dangerous loading affects the stability of the vehicle leading to rollover when a vehicle is approaching a curve.
Brakes-poor brakes condition can affect the slowdown and in order to avoid the rollover. Bad brakes combined with misjudgment can lead to rollovers in the curves.
Roads-the conditions and feature of the roads can also contribute to rollovers. This includes slippery surface, downgrades, poorly marked lanes and roads lacking directive posters.
Intersections-going too fast to make a turn can cause rollover. This results when a driver is in a hurry to beat traffic lights when encountering a T-section or making a last second turn at a crossroad.
Vehicles-if a driver fails to realize that the vehicles a head are slowing down and he is unable to stop in time, then it can be disastrous. This is caused by the driver’s inattention condition due to insufficient following distance.
Tires-the failure of adjustment of speed to counter worn tires can lead in rollover. Worn out tires cannot give the vehicle the handling it require and the friction needed to handle a slippery surface more so when it approaches a curve.
Sight distance- there are situations where a driver can approach a top of the hill at a fairly high speed and fail to reduce speed to accommodate the limited light distance. When such a driver suddenly sees the stalled traffic, they try to break sharply leading to rollover CITATION Her12 l 1033 (Herbst, 2012).
Rollover Preventive Measures
Drivers should be briefed on the crush causes or rollovers in order to allow for countermeasures to be directed to their own reduction. Changes made to the vehicle and the road way can also reduce some causes of rollovers. For example, installation of signs and posters at freeway exits that give directions on speed limits and installation of devices that gives warning signals to the driver on dangerous loading. Another effective way to reduce rollovers can be introduction of rollover prevention measures in training programs not only to the truck drivers but all the drivers. It is important to introduce more visual trainings and materials rather than just words or printed materials when training truck drivers on rollover preventive measures. This is because situations leading to rollover are far much better presented visually than through written words. In fact much more video programs should be developed to provide instructions in various aspects of driving safety CITATION Par12 l 1033 (Park, 2012).
Conclusion
From the research we have identified the majority causes of rollover to be occurring in curves, on and off ramps where misjudgments leads to excess speed against the center of gravity of the vehicle. In attention and dozing also acts as a major cause of correction leading to rollovers. Turning sharply, overcorrecting path errors, turning too little to remain on the road also contributes to truck rollover. As we have discussed in the research, the failure to adjust speed to match the height and the weight of the load in transit is also a major contributor to rollover. All these could be prevented through proper driver trainings using video to expose drivers, especially truck drivers to situations that lead to rollover. Simulation can also act as a major tool in preventing truck rollover because it allows the drivers to experience the results of rollover inducing errors without the consequences. CITATION Bru14 l 1033 (Brun, 2014)Reference
HERBST, B., Bish, J., MEYER, S., Nelson, A. O., Forrest, S., Bell, L., & Clarke, C. (2013). Heavy truck rollover crashworthiness utilizing sled impact testing. Berichte der Bundesanstalt fuer Strassenwesen. Unterreihe Fahrzeugtechnik, (87).
Herbst, B. R., Bish, J. O., Meyer, S. E., Nelson, A. O., Forrest, S. M., Bell, L. D., & Clarke, C. C. (2012, November). Heavy Truck Rollover Testing Methods. In ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (pp. 197-205). American Society of Mechanical Engineers.Park, L., & Pierce, D. (2012). Mapping Large Truck Rollovers: Identification and Mitigation Through Spatial Data Analysis.
Brun, L., Maincent, A., & Martin, R. (2014). Design of Human Machine Interfaces for a trucks anti-rollover system using a video support. Journal of Law and Social Sciences (JLSS), 1(2).Vernick, J. S., Tung, G. J., & Kromm, J. N. (2012). Interventions to reduce risks associated with vehicle incompatibility. Epidemiologic reviews, 34(1), 57-64.
