A Study of the Rear Seat Occupant Safety using a 10-Year-Old Child Dummy in the New Car Assessment Program

Abstract

This paper describes how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a total of 28 frontal crashes in the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) involving the 10-year-old child Hybrid III dummy. The 10-year-old child dummy was in the rear seat. All types of vehicles (passenger cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and pick-up trucks) were tested to assess the effect of restraint systems such as booster and pretensioner on the rear seat occupant. In this study, the readings of the 10-year-old child dummy in rear-left and rear-right seat positions are examined. This paper applies a possible 5 star rating system, based on head and chest readings of the 10-year-old dummy. The paper also assesses the safety performance of rear seat occupants and the effect of the restraint systems on a child in the rear seat. This paper suggests that a star rating for rear seat occupants is independent of the present ratings for the driver and front adult passenger in NCAP. This paper examines the dynamic signals of the vehicle and the child dummy in the 28 NCAP crashes. The examination figured out the relationship between vehicle pulse and dummy pulse compared with 5-4 star-rated vehicles or 3-1 star-rated vehicles based on the rear seat occupant responses. The child dummy signals are compared for different passenger vehicles. For example, the comparison of high head acceleration and low chest acceleration case to low head acceleration and high chest acceleration case is performed for vans.