GM Builds a Rollover Test Facility

General Motors has now opened a $10 million facility to investigate all types of vehicle rollovers in a controlled environment. Located at GM's Milford Proving Grounds, the 38,500-square-foot rollover facility will host 150 to 200 crash tests annually, starting this year. The rollover area itself is covered by 120 feet of lights with 1728 lamps, each generating 1000 watts of light. With such high-intensity illumination, it's easy for high-speed video cameras to capture a crash in excruciating detail.

While rollovers are only about two percent of all highway accidents, they account for almost 40 percent of all fatalities, and the pressure on manufacturers to minimize their severity is intense. The GM facility will provide data for smarter rollover-enabled side-curtain airbags. Those airbags must deploy, whether the rollover is a "trip over" (such as hitting a curb with a tire), "ditch fall-over" (where the vehicle rolls on its side down a steep embankment), "corkscrew ramp flip-over" (the vehicle climbs up a guard rail or median and launches over), or a "dolly rollover" (the vehicle slides sideways and then rolls), all of which can be simulated and studied now at GM's facility.