Children in Adult Seat Belts and Child Harnesses: Crash Sled Comparisons of Dummy Responses 973308
Many children are still restrained in adult belts alone, even though an adult seat belt is not optimal for small occupants for whom a child restraint would be safer and more desirable. Therefore, a test program was designed to investigate the impact responses of three dummies representing children aged 18 months, three years and six years. The simulations were sled runs at a delta-V of 48 km/h with accelerations of 27 g. The dummies were restrained in adult lap/shoulder, lap-only and child harness belt systems.
Neck shear, axial tension and bending moments were rather higher with a lap/shoulder than a lap-only belt. However, the lap/shoulder system minimised dummy head and upper torso excursion, head acceleration and pelvic accelerations.
Lap belt loads, head accelerations, HIC and chest accelerations were higher with the lap belt alone than with the lap/shoulder belt. The lap belt also permitted considerable excursion and head contact with the hard frame of the test seat, which affected HIC and neck loads. The lap/harness system gave generally the highest head and neck forces.
Citation: Henderson, M., Brown, J., and Griffiths, M., "Children in Adult Seat Belts and Child Harnesses: Crash Sled Comparisons of Dummy Responses," SAE Technical Paper 973308, 1997, https://doi.org/10.4271/973308. Download Citation
Author(s):
Michael Henderson, Julie Brown, Michael Griffiths
Affiliated:
Roads and Traffic Authority
Pages: 5
Event:
41st Stapp Car Crash Conference
ISSN:
0148-7191
e-ISSN:
2688-3627
Also in:
Child Occupant Protection 2nd Symposium Proceedings-P-316, SAE 1997 Transactions - Journal of Passenger Cars-V106-6
Related Topics:
Head
Child restraint systems
Neck
Torso
Safety belts
Vehicle occupants
Adults
Children
Vehicle acceleration
Anthropometric test devices
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