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More than 900,000 long-haul sleeper cabs are projected to be on the road by 2030. About half of heavy truck occupant fatalities occur in rollovers. This paper discusses the current status of rollover protection systems for occupants in sleeper cabs and describes the outcomes from example crashes with sleeper cab occupants. A virtual testing methodology for evaluation of current designs under rollover conditions and restraint tests utilizing dummies and humans also are described. The paper includes discussion of finite element models used and their validation. Examples of results associated with various restraint system configurations are presented. The results show that incorporating effective lateral restraint is important in providing protection to sleeper cab occupants under rollover conditions.

Impacts between passenger vehicles and heavy vehicles are uniquely severe due to the aggressivity of the heavy vehicles; this is a function of the difference in their geometry and mass. Side crashes with heavy vehicles are a particularly severe crash type due to the mismatch in bumper/structure height that often results in underride and extensive intrusion of the passenger compartment. Underride occurs when a portion of one vehicle, usually the smaller vehicle, moves under another, rendering many of the passenger vehicle safety systems ineffective. Heavy vehicles in the US, including single-unit trucks, truck tractors, semi-trailers, and full trailers, are currently not required to have side underride protection devices. The NTSB, among other groups, has recommended that side underride performance standards be developed and that heavy vehicles be equipped with side underride protection systems that meet those standards.