Child restraint systems have been providing effective protection to children traveling in motor vehicles in the United States. The emergence of new model vehicles equipped with passenger side air bags raised some questions about potential negative interactions between two highly effective safety devices — air bags and child restraint systems placed in the front seats of motor vehicles.

This paper summarizes the results of a research effort conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to determine the effects on child restraint systems by deploying air bags. The research consisted of identifying potential interaction problems and dynamically testing combinations of air bags and child restraint systems to determine the effects of the deploying air bags on the restrained child occupants. Findings of this testing indicate that deploying passenger side air bags tend to increase substantially the head and chest accelerations of child dummies restrained in rear-facing child restraint systems. On the other hand, the testing indicates that the values of these accelerations tend to decrease when the child restraint system is placed in a forward facing configuration. This paper also discusses actions that the agency undertook to address the potential negative interaction of passenger side air bags and rear-facing child restraint systems.