Child Occupant Protection in Motor Vehicle Crashes

This text is a collecton of papers organized by the European Vehicle Passive Safety Network, AAAM and IRCOBI, held in Spain in September 1999. Topics discussed include the characteristics of children in rollover collisons and patterns of inappropriate restraint for children in crashes.

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Child passenger safety will remain an important public health issue for years ahead as the research community strives to find solutions to persistent problems such as out-of-position child occupants and complex paediatric injuries. fundamental to this quest is a better understanding of the biochemical responses and tolerance limits of children. However, the overall effectiveness of child restraint systems can only be evaluated from real-world field dat, and not from laboratory test devices. Until such time as injuries can be mitigated or prevented, the traffic safety community must persist in keeping child occupant protection as a priority in public policy decisions and in educating parents and other adults responsible for children. This book is a collection of papers which adds to the body of knowledge on the effectiveness of child restraint systems. Data from observational surveys, insurance files, hospital records, and field studies - including in-depth crash investigations are included. The following topics are addressed: injuries to children in accidents; the use of CARS and protection; test procedure, tools, and biomechanics.
The knowledge presented in this volume is another building block towards reducing casualties to child occupants in motor vehicles, It should be of interest to all those involved in this field.