One of the most adverse types of pathology in road embankments is the longitudinal cracks. As the cracks appear in a random way, the understanding of the causes leading to the formation and evolution of the cracks and the specification of measures to reduce their occurrence becomes a major challenge. This paper presents possible causes underlying this type of cracks. The aim of this study phase was to analyze the deformation and stress distribution in a typical road embankment in order to get an idea of how sensitive the development of longitudinal cracks is to the variation of some geotechnical parameters of the embankment and the foundation. Tensile stresses appearing at the top of the embankment do not justify the development of longitudinal cracks by itself. As cracks may be the result of tensile stresses combined with other factors, such as degree of compaction, vegetation growth, changes in moisture and shrinkage, the contribution of these factors deserves further attention.