ATA has investigated a variety of accidents involving golf carts, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and utility task vehicles, also known as utility terrain vehicle (UTVs). Although there is not a clear line of demarcation separating the two vehicle types, an ATV is typically designed to carry one rider for high-performance, off-road recreation, while a UTV provides more modest, work-oriented performance with room on-board for as many as four occupants.
Recreational vehicle misadventures are usually single-vehicle accidents where the driver’s steering input or an off-road terrain feature, such as a slope, triggers vehicle instability. In its investigation of some ATV and UTV cases, ATA has hired stunt performers to re-enact dynamic roll-overs with exemplar vehicles. In other cases, quasi-static tipping of a vehicle on a laboratory tilt-table is enough to quantify the height of the vehicle’s center of gravity, its static stability ratio, and the value of lateral acceleration necessary to initial a roll-over.
