Citation

Lalande S, Legault F, Pedder J. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2003; 2003: 13 p..

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a series of 44 dynamic sled tests simulating a 48 km/h frontal impact. Three convertible child restraints installed in the forward-facing mode were tested. The first used a 5-point harness system, the second a T-shield configuration, and the third an overhead shield system. The type of misuse was varied for each test and included the amount of shoulder harness slack and/or twisting, seat belt and tether strap slack, seat belt routing, shoulder harness location, shoulder harness slot height, and chest clip use. An instrumented child anthropometric test dummy was installed in the restraints. The results of the misuse testing showed that the most important degradation of safety resulted from pulling the test dummy's arms through the shoulder harness. The second most important degradation of safety resulted from adding 3 inches of slack to the shoulder harness, to the tether strap and to the seat belt.