Abstract
The Regulation UN-ECE 66, currently in force in many European countries, requires to the superstructure of the coach to be resistant enough to preserve a survival space without intrusions during and after an standard rollover test. In the defined test, just the unladen kerb mass of the vehicle is considered.
The imminent introduction of mandatory safety belts for passengers in coaches has raised the discussion about the influence of occupants and belts in rollover results. The retention provided by the safety belts in the rollover will contribute to reduce the injuries of the occupants, but may lead to higher solicitations over the vehicle structure. So it should be evaluated the convenience of the addition of the passenger masses for the verification of the structural resistance during the rollover. In effect, if the mass of the passengers is attached to the vehicle, the increment of the vehicle effective mass and the center of gravity height will cause a larger deformation in the rollover, which may lead to intrusions in the survival space. But passengers are not rigidly fixed to the vehicle, and the percentage of their mass to be considered should depend on the restraint systems.