In Europe, universal child restraints are attached to the vehicle using Adult seat belts, This has been found to result in interaction problems and in a high proportion of misuse. Itis hoped that at some point in the near future a universal child restraint attachment concept will be adopted that will greatly reduce or eliminate some of the failings found in existing restraint designs and the misuses that these failings generate. The proposed child restraint fixation system, ‘ISOFIX’, is based upon the provision of suitable attachment points in appropriate seating positions onto which suitably equipped child seats may be simply and safely latched.

This paper details some initial dynamic testing of early prototype ISOFIX seating systems and, where appropriate, compares and contrasts these results with relevant data from similar tests with typical current UK child restraint systems.