The effect of using universal anchorages in child restraint seats on the injury potential for children in frontal crash

This paper focuses on the efficacy of various methods used for anchoring child safety seats in vehicles. An experimental vehicle crash test was conducted incorporating two three-year-old Hybrid III crash test dummies, restrained in a five-point child restraint seats, in accordance to Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208. One Child Restraint Seat was affixed to the vehicle seat using the car seat belt and the second was anchored using the lower anchorages provided in the vehicle for child seats. A top tether was used in addition to both the anchoring techniques to provide additional support to the child safety seat. The vehicle crash test was completed to investigate the head, neck, and thoracic injury potential of the Hybrid III crash test dummies due to change in anchoring methods. Similarities and differences were noted in the response of the two dummies to the same crash conditions. Peak values of the neck injury criteria, calculated from the observations obtained from the lower neck loads cell ranged from 1.7 to 1.9. The head injury criteria calculated over a 15 ms evaluation period were observed to lie between 250 and 350, and the values computed over a 36 ms evaluation period ranged between 450 and 600. Percentage reduction of approximately 10% to 20% was observed in the neck forces and moments and head accelerations by using the adult seat belt instead of the ISOFIX for CRS anchoring. A high probability of neck and cervical injuries was estimated for both child restraining configurations.