Improved side impact protection for Australian child occupants

While frontal crashes are the most common types of collisions in Australia (and elsewhere), side impact crashes often account for a greater proportion of serious and fatal injuries. This is true for both adult and child occupants. In recent years vehicle designers have made significant enhancements to crash protection systems that will provide increased levels of protection to adult occupants. However, little international attention has been focussed on the design of child restraint systems that provide improved side impact protection. This paper presents the results from a comprehensive series of simulated side impacts. These results demonstrate both the scope for improving child occupant protection and how easily significant increases in the level of protection can be achieved through attention to anchorages, padding and side structure geometry. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E211985.