Citation

Charlton JL, Fildes BN, Laemmle R, Koppel S, Fechner L, Moore K, Smith S, Douglas F, Doktor I. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2005; 2005: 7p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relative effectiveness of two booster seats for use by children across a wide age span, from around 3 years to 10+ years. The study was part of a broad research program to identify suitable child restraint systems (CRS) to fit a large sedan vehicle to maximise protection in a crash. Dummies were restrained in the rear seat of a vehicle buck in three restraint configurations with boosters: (i) with a standard adult lap-sash seatbelt, (ii) with a seatbelt plus H-harness and crotch strap, or (iii) with a seatbelt plus H-harness with the crotch strap disengaged (to simulate the effects of real-world misuse conditions), and a fourth condition (iv) with an adult seatbelt only. Boosters were fitted in the vehicle with two different anchorage systems: a standard seatbelt and a system including a retrofitted rigid ISOFIX attachment and top tether. HyGe sled tests were conducted to simulate a 64 km/h offset deformable barrier frontal impact with a change in velocity of around 71 km/h. Preliminary investigations were also conducted using side impact simulations with a change in velocity of around 15 km/h. Overall, the booster seats for both the 6 year old dummy and the 3 year old dummy (with harness and crotch strap) provided superior crash protection than use of the adult seatbelt. For tests when the H-harness was used to restrain the dummy, use of the crotch strap was critical in eliminating ‘sub-marining’. The research highlighted the potential for serious injury with misuse of child harness systems and identified several areas for design improvement of booster seats.