Citation

Radovich VG, Bayer AR, Benson JB, Naab KN. Proc. Stapp Car Crash Conf. 1979; 23: 419-461.

Affiliation

US DOT

Copyright

(Copyright © 1979, Society of Automotive Engineers SAE)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

An extensive program was undertaken by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to establish appropriate means and procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of child restraints in automobile crashes. A three-year old child test dummy was found to provide acceptable acceleration and kinematic measurements. Dummy calibration involved the measurement of head and chest accelerations and the bending characteristics of the neck and lumbar section. Four calibrated dummies were further evaluated in simulated frontal crashes in two representative child restraint-automobile crash environments to determine the repeatability of their responses obtained in replicated testing. Twenty-three different child restraint systems were tested in 30 mph and 20 mph simulated crashes with infant and three year old child test dummies. The results indicate that a number of child restraint systems failed structurally and that the dynamic testing could uncover these and other performance problems.