One-third of single vehicle run off the road (SVROR) crashes result in rollovers, the leading cause of fatalities in this type of crash. Many of these crashes involve vehicles digging into the ground on embankments or in ditches after encroaching onto the roadside. Additionally, light trucks with a higher centers of gravity, such as sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks are overrepresented in rollover crashes. An increase in the percentage of light trucks in the vehicle fleet demands additional research and updates to the roadside safety guidelines.

Work conducted under NCHRP 17-55 included thousands of simulations for various combinations of roadside slope configurations and geometric conditions that represent real-world crash scenarios. The simulations were performed using vehicle models that represented a variety of vehicle classes in today’s vehicle fleet. The results helped to produce the guidance on roadside slope traversability for a variety of roadside conditions. The final report may be found using the following link https://www.trb.org/NCHRP/Blurbs/179413.aspx.