Child Frontal Impact Safety in Coaches

This paper reviews the safety of children from 18 months to 10 years old at the coaches’ frontal impact event. To meet this goal it has been made 5 frontal crash tests at 30 kph using 4 child dummies restrained each one with a different safety system in each test. The configurations chosen for the safety systems cover the withholding provided solely by the back of the seat back placed in front to the combined use of three-point belt with the proper child restraint seat according to the size and weight of each dummy. It have been checked the operation of both safety belts, the one with three points anchorages and with two anchor points for the latter is the most common configuration in Class II and Class III coaches. Also, have being verified the behavior of a three-point belt with automatic regulation of the shoulder height for the children or adults. In all cases the values measured by the dummies were used to calculate the injury criteria and compared with the IARV developed by EEVC working groups WG12 Biomechanics and WG18 Child Safety, as well as the latest proposals of the informal working group of GRSP in child restraints.