Child safety in a car during a frontal collision

Road accidents with participation of the children are of particular nature. According to surveys, the older children at the age of 8-12 years are often transported in cars in a wrong way. They are usually fastened with seat belts designed for adult passengers. In order to make the seat belts safe for a child, they should be used together with a booster cushion or a high back booster seat. This paper presents the test results and analysis of dynamic loads affecting a child in the back seat of a passenger car during a frontal collision. The car body was accelerated to a speed of about 48 km/h and then it was suddenly stopped in a time of about 100 ms. The analysis was carried out on the basis of results of experimental tests performed at the collision station in the Automotive Industry Institute in Warsaw. The attention was paid to the influence of protection device type on the P10 dummy, representing a child at the age of about 10 years. Three child protection options during a collision were considered: the dummy was sitting directly in a car seat, on a booster cushion and on a seat. The dummy was fastened with standard seat belts. Evaluation of the protection device influence on the dummy loads was given in association with the operation of the seat belts. During evaluation, the indexes of biomechanical resistance of a human body to the impact load effects were used. They made the basis for the evaluation of the child injury severity risk.