Staying Upright-Awareness

     Chris Stephens, of the Vic Roads

 Vehicle Management and Safety

 Division, is not the archetypal public

 servant you might expect to find

 serving in a government

 department.  With several full car

 and motorcycle restorations under

 his belt, as his hobby away from the

 office, Chris has a passion for

 interesting technical challenges.

 Combined with a background in

 application engineering, his latest

 research programme has alerted

 officials, both here and overseas, to

 the problems of heavy vehicle

 rollovers.

      Chris started analysing data concerning truck rollover statistics and found that common statistics in current use were seriously flawed. One might assume insurance companies and police reports would provide all the necessary data. However, Chris discovered that questions asked at the scene of an accident were often aimed at extracting an easy answer, even if incorrect, rather than delving into the background of the accident and becoming more detailed, and perhaps more incriminating.

“At first we assumed that insurance company records would give an accurate indication of the regularity of truck rollovers,” said Chris. “But as we investigated further we found that with so many transport companies self-insuring, the data was seriously flawed,” he added.