Uncovering the Root Causes of Truck Rollover Crashes on Highway Ramps

Highway ramps are hotspots of truck rollover crashes. Such crashes often block the entire ramp and cause severe congestion. Understanding the major causes of ramp truck rollovers is critical for developing effective countermeasures. This webinar will highlight research which utilized drones to collect ramp traffic videos at seven high-risk ramps and developed a model for vehicle detection and several other algorithms for tracking vehicles, extracting vehicle trajectories, and identifying high-risk events such as unsafe and last-minute lane changes. A thorough review of literature and best practices on reducing ramp truck rollovers was conducted and crash narratives of all ramp truck rollovers between January 2015 and February 2022 in Massachusetts were reviewed. The locations and types of traffic signs, slopes, and curve radii of seven identified highway ramps were also obtained and carefully investigated together with the trajectory analysis results. It was found that over 95% of ramp truck rollovers are single-vehicle crashes and speeding is the predominant cause. Based on the analysis, some practical and specific safety improvement recommendations are provided. During the webinar, the presenters will provide an overview of the study and discuss some of the preliminary findings, followed by Q&A as time allows.

Presenters: Dr. Yuanchang Xie — Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, UMass Lowell Bonnie Polin — State Safety Engineer, MassDOT

Click here to register for the Uncovering the Root Causes of Truck Rollover Crashes on Highway Ramps webinar.