IMMI Offers Advanced Rollover Protection System

    WESTFIELD, Ind.--April 16, 2001--IMMI, the leading manufacturer of commercial vehicle safety restraints recently introduced its advanced rollover protection system at the Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky. The rollover protection system, the world's first rollover safety technology specifically for the commercial truck industry, will be available soon in the Freightliner(R) Century Class S/T(TM) and Argosy(TM) heavy-duty trucks.
    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports 60% of the truck occupant fatalities involved a rollover. As an innovator and leader in commercial vehicle safety restraint systems, IMMI developed and tested its advanced rollover protection system specifically for the heavy and medium truck environment.
    "A rollover is one of the most violent and deadly crash scenarios for any truck driver," said Mike Leakey, IMMI's Commercial Vehicle Division Market Manager. "The rollover testing we conducted at our CAPE test facility gave us the opportunity to study how the head and upper body impacting the vehicle interior resulted in unsurvivable head and neck injuries. Our engineers saw an opportunity to develop this new restraint system to save truck drivers' lives and reduce injuries."
    The rollover protection system is composed of three integrated components:

--	Rollover Sensor: A microprocessor-controlled, solid-state sensing device that utilizes complex proprietary algorithms along with vehicle specific calibrations to detect rollovers. Taking into account several critical dynamic factors specific to heavy truck, the sensing device can determine when a truck is rolling in time for IMMI's advanced occupant protection systems to be deployed.
--	Inflatable Tubular Structure (ITS): During a rollover, an inflatable tubular structure, hidden in the window trim above the door, deploys across the window and side vehicle interior to protect the driver's head during impact.
--	S4 Seat Pull-Down System: During a rollover the S4 system tightens the seat belt and pulls the air suspension seat down to the floor, positioning the occupant in a zone providing a more survivable space while minimizing head contact with the roof interior.

    IMMI began developing the rollover protection system in 1996 and has again raised the bar for occupant safety, as they did in the 1980's, by developing a unique lap and shoulder belt system specifically for commercial vehicles when only a lap belt was required.