In the ISO TC22/SC12 working group 1 "Child Restraint Systems" the risk of side impacts to children in cars was declared an important working item and an adhoc group was established to analyse this field.

This paper summarises the first experience and activities of this ad-hoc group "Children in Cars - Side Impact Studies". The group started in 1993 an international inquiry at accident research units to cover characteristics and injury patterns of children in cars depending on seating position, age and kind of restraint systems used.

The resulting international database covers at present 83 side impacts of children in cars from 0 to 4 years and 56 accidents of children between 5 and 12 years where the children suffered an injury severity of MAIS 2+.

Based on the results from the accident data and the sampling of full scale and sled tests new test configurations have been developed.

The paper includes suggestions for further work with side impact test procedures, which ceuid be a basis for future safety standards.