Field investigation of child restraints in side impact crashes

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Arbogast, Kristy B.¹; Ghati, Yoganand¹; Menon, Rajiv A.¹; Tylko, Suzanne²; Tamborra, Nicholas³; Morgan, Richard M.³

Field investigation of child restraints in side impact crashes

Traffic Inj Prev. December 2005;6(4):351-360

©2005 Taylor & Francis Inc

Affiliations

¹TraumaLink, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

²Transport Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

³FHWA/NHTSA National Crash Analysis Center, George Washington University, Ashburn, Virginia, USA
Abstract and keywords

Objective: Various test procedures have been suggested for assessing the protection afforded by child restraints (CRS) in lateral collisions. Analyses of real world crashes can be used to identify relevant characteristics of the child, restraint, collision, and injury mechanisms that should be incorporated into the design of the test procedures as well as in the design of related ATDs and injury metrics. The objective of this work is to use in-depth crash investigations of children restrained in CRS in side impacts to elucidate specific sources and mechanisms of injuries and explore the role of crash severity variables such as magnitude and location of intrusion and specific impact angle.

Methods: Real world crashes involving children restrained in forward facing CRS in side impacts were analyzed from Partners for Child Passenger Safety, an on-going child specific crash surveillance system in which insurance claims are used to identify cases. In-depth crash investigations using standardized protocols were used to calculate the crash severity and determine the mechanisms and sources of the injuries sustained.

Results: Cases of 32 children restrained in CRS in 30 side impact crashes were examined. Twenty-five percent sustained AIS 2+ injuries. The most common injuries sustained by children restrained in CRS in side impact crashes were to the face, head, and lower extremity. Characteristics of the crashes that appeared related to injury were intrusion that entered the child's occupant space or caused an interior part of the vehicle to enter the child's occupant space, forward component of the crash, and the rotation of the CRS, restrained by a seat belt, towards the side of the impact.

Conclusions: The ability to assess the injury potential in a laboratory setting for the body regions of common injury, the head, face, and lower extremity, must be explored. Characteristics of a regulatory-based test procedure to assess injury risk should include a frontal component to the crash and intrusion into the occupant's seating position. Design enhancements of the CRS should address rotation during lateral impacts. These results provide guidance to current efforts to design and regulate these restraints for the safety of child passengers in side impacts.

Keywords: Child Restraints, Side Impact, Intrusion
Links

DOI: 10.1080/15389580500255831

PubMed: 16266944
History

Received: 2005-02-17

Accepted: 2005-05-06

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Cited By (14)

Year	Entry
2010	Andersson M, Bohman K, Osvalder A-L. Effect of booster seat design on children’s choice of seating positions during naturalistic riding. In: 54th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 17-20, 2010; Las Vegas, NV.117-126.
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2009	Maltese MR, Locey CM, Jermakian JS, Arbogast KB. In-depth field investigations of belt-restrained children in farside crashes. In: Proceedings of the 21st International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 15-18, 2009; Stuttgart, Germany.
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2017	Hauschild HW, Humm JR, Arbogast KB, Maltese MR, Pintar FA, Yoganandan N, Kaufman B. Protection of children in child restraint systems in oblique impacts: relative motion of the child and child restraint. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 5-8, 2017; Detroit, MI.
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2019	Mansfield JA. Investigation of Child Restraint System (CRS) Misuse: Passive and Active Educational Interventions [PhD thesis]. The Ohio State University; 2019.
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