Vehicle Occupants in I-90 Rollover Escaped Injury
A truck rollover on I-90 in Illinois causes a chain-reaction crash; fortunately, no one was injured.

July 16, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A three-vehicle chain-reaction crash was the result of a truck rollover on I-90. The tractor-trailer itself rolled on top of another vehicle, but fortunately, all vehicle occupants escaped injury.

The State Highway Patrol is investigating the crash, but has not made any decision whether to issue any citations. The cause of the truck rollover has not yet been determined.
Rollover Accidents Cause Disproportionate Number Of Fatalities

The I-90 truck accident highlights the dangers of rollover accidents. The people in these vehicles were lucky, as rollovers have a higher fatality rate than other types of crashes. NHTSA statistics show that out of almost 11 million vehicle crashes in 2002, only 3 percent involved a rollover.

Yet accounting for only 3 percent of crashes, rollover accidents accounted for nearly 33 percent of all deaths from passenger vehicle crashes. In 2002, more than 10,000 people died in rollover crashes.

The NHTSA website lists various causes for rollover accidents; they include:
- Speed: Forty percent of fatal rollover crashes involved excessive speeding.
- Vehicle type: High center of gravity vehicles, like SUVs and large trucks, are more likely to roll over.
- Alcohol: Almost half of all fatal rollover crashes involve alcohol.
- Location: Rural roads tend to be undivided and not have barriers. Approximately three quarters of fatal rollovers occur in rural areas with 55 miles per hour or higher speed limits.
- Routine driving: Ninety percent of rollover accidents occur during normal driving, suggesting that distracted driving, inattentiveness, speeding, and impaired driving play a significant part in rollover crashes.
- Single vehicles: NHTSA data show that nearly 85 percent of all rollover-related fatalities are the result of single-vehicle crashes. This further indicates that driver behavior plays a significant role in rollover crashes

NHTSA is working to make vehicles less prone to rollover. One area that shows promise is Electronic Stability Control (ESC). ESC is an electronic system that assists drivers in maintaining control of their vehicles during extreme steering maneuvers.

ESC functions by sensing when the vehicle is losing directional stability and works to automatically slow the vehicle with brake and throttle control. NHTSA is determining which current ESC systems achieve the highest safety benefits and are most effective, and may potentially mandate their use on all vehicles.

A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) shows some SUVs are now safer than some cars, which appears to be primarily due to use of ESC in those vehicles.

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