Safety and analysis of modern transport articulated vehicles motoric properties

The paper presents main causes of threats posed on articulated vehicles traffic safety and the methods for their prevention. Based on the motoric properties evaluation method, the capabilities of military articulated vehicles as of 2010 were examined in that respect. Articulated vehicles, which include truck-tractor and semi-trailer, are used for carriage of the so-called combat technology in the armed forces. Problems related to transportation of military equipment have inter alia been presented in papers [1, 2]. They result primarily from the significant linear dimensions and large weights, which are characteristic for the articulated vehicle of truck-tractor and semi-trailer. Other, additional problems affecting the safety of traffic are related to the type of cargo and its fixing mode [3]. In the case of articulated military vehicles, in most cases, wheeled or tracked vehicles are transported, that is a very specific cargo, difficult to be fixed to the flatbeds of the semi-trailers. All these vehicles should have their load floor located as low as possible because the floor placed too high may cause that the total height of the vehicle and the load carried will interfere with the road infrastructure (tunnels, overpasses, electric traction over the roadway, etc.), and the highly located centre of mass negatively affects the stability of motion [3]