Misuse has been reported in various studies as an important issue in countries where local legislation requires a mandatory use of child restraint systems. It has been shown that the rate of incorrect fitting of the CRS to the car may vary between 60 to 80% (1 Bendjellal, 2006).

However research has not confirmed that all misuse scenarios result in critical occupant loading but a combination of several misuse situations may lead to an improper occupant restraint (2 Bilston, Brown, 2011). It is therefore important to develop technical solutions aiming at reducing the risk of misuse in real-world. Slack in vehicle seat belts when securing the CRS to the vehicle and improper occupant restraint within the CRS are among the top 5 misuse situations according to Bennett study (3 Bennett, 2011) and in NHTSA 2005 survey (4 NHTSA, 2006).

Two technical solutions are presented in this paper, these are:​

• A system (called A) that enables improving the attachment of the CRS to the vehicle by assisting the user to tighten properly the vehicle seatbelt
• A system (called B) that was developed:​ to improve the attachment of the CRS to the vehicle by tightening the vehicle seat-belt (mechanical solution);​ and (for harness seats) to reduce slack in the harness in riding conditions (electronic solution).

Operating modes of both systems are described. User trials were conducted to assess further the functionality of the systems as well as getting consumer feedback when utilizing them in real world. Key findings from these are also provided in the paper. Both systems show promising results in terms of assisting the users in installing CRSs.