Injury risks, misuse rates and the effect of misuse depending on the kind of child restraint system

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Hummel, Th.¹; Langwieder, K.¹; Finkbeiner, F.¹; Hell, W.¹

Injury risks, misuse rates and the effect of misuse depending on the kind of child restraint system

Proceedings of the 2nd Child Occupant Protection Symposium

Affiliations

¹Institute for Vehicle Safety GDV, Germany
Abstract

The compulsory use of child restraint systems (CRS) in cars which came into force on 1st April 1993 led to a considerable increase in the belting rate of children in Germany, but between 30% and nearly 60% of the children aged 0<12 years are only restrained by an adult belt (lap or three-point belt).

On the basis of a new accident material of the German Motor Insurers (593 restrained children 0 to 12 years involved in 448 car accidents) the injury risk of children being belted with an adult belt only is compared to those injury risks of children being restrained in different types of CRS (415-point belt, 3-point belt, impact shield, booster cushion). The form of restraint "child with an adult belt only" involves disproportionately high risks.

In retrospective accident studies it is relatively difficult to get detailed information about the frequency and the exact kind of CRS misuse. Therefore 250 users of CRS were observed and interviewed. Only in one third of these observations the CRS were correctly mounted; depending on different types of CRS the misuse rates lay between 20 and 90%.

To check up the effect of the most frequent and most severe kinds of misuse 20 crash tests with wrong fitted CRS were carried out; for this reason tests with an ECE sled and with a cut-off car body have been performed. Depending on the kind of CRS a partly considerable reduction of the safety effect of CRS could be observed in case of misuse. Protection against misuse by a proper design has to be given highest priority for the safety improvement of future CRS.
Links

DOI: 10.4271/973309

SAE: 973309

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Cited By (12)

Year	Entry
2002	Arbogast KB, Cornejo RA, Kallan MJ, Winston FK, Durbin DR. Injuries to children in forward facing child restraints. In: 46th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 30–October 2, 2002; Tempe, AZ.
1998	Anselm D, Langwieder K, Sporner A. New developments in retrospective data bases of serious car crashes and car collisions with pedestrians and motorcyclists: the research activities of the German insurers (GDV). In: Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 31–June 4, 1998; Windsor, Ontario, Canada.2237-2246.
2001	Paine M, Vertsonis H. Surveys of child restraint use in New South Wales. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 4-7, 2001; Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
2003	Paine M, Griffiths M, Brown J, Case M, Johnstone O. Protecting children in car crashes: the australian experience. In: Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). May 19-22, 2003; Nagoya, Japan.
2005	Jakobsson L, Isaksson-Hellman I, Lundell B. Safety for the growing child: experiences from Swedish accident data. In: Proceedings of the 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 6-9, 2005; Washington, DC.
2007	Mizuno K, Namikiri T. Analysis of child responses in CRS using child human FE model. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2007	Jakobsson L, Wiberg H, Isaksson-Hellman I, Gustafsson J. Rear seat safety for the growing child: a new 2-stage integrated booster cushion. In: Proceedings of the 20th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 18-21, 2007; Lyon, France.
2011	Tai A, Bilston LE, Brown J. The cumulative effect of multiple forms of minor incorrect use in forward facing child restraints on head injury risk. In: Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 13-16, 2011; Washington, DC.
2015	Rola E, Rzymkowski C. Effectiveness of the child restraint system with a special airbag and smart seatbelt pretensioner in frontal collisions. In: Proceedings of the 2015 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 9-11, 2015; Lyon, France.101-113.
2004	Arbogast KB, Durbin DR, Cornejo RA, Kallan MJ, Winston FK. An evaluation of the effectiveness of forward facing child restraint systems. Accid Anal Prev. 2004;36(4):585-589.
2019	Mansfield JA. Investigation of Child Restraint System (CRS) Misuse: Passive and Active Educational Interventions [PhD thesis]. The Ohio State University; 2019.
2017	Hall AB. A Novel User-Input and User-Testing Method for Designing Child Restraint Product Information to Reduce Misuse [PhD thesis]. University of New South Wales; December 2017.