Low Speed Override of Passenger Vehicles with Heavy Trucks 2019-01-0430

Collisions that involve a heavy truck colliding with the rear of a passenger vehicle at low speeds (under 15 mph) are a common impact configuration seen in accident reconstruction. With these types of collisions, it is likely that the front bumper of the heavy truck will override the rear bumper beam of the passenger vehicle, creating an override/underride impact configuration. However, there is limited data available for study when attempting to quantify vehicle damages and crash dynamics in low-speed override/underride impacts. Tests were conducted to provide new data for passenger vehicle dynamics and damage assessment for low speed override/underride rear impacts to passenger vehicles. Three tests were conducted, with a tractor-trailer impacting three different passenger vehicles at speeds between 5-10 mph. This paper presents data from these three tests in order to expand the available data set for low speed override/underride collisions.