Transportation Safety Standards for Wheelchair Users: A Review of Voluntary Standards for Improved Safety, Usability, and Independence of Wheelchair-Seated Travelers

Abstract

Safe transportation for wheelchair users who do not transfer to the vehicle seat when traveling in motor vehicles requires after-market wheelchair tiedown and occupant restraint systems (WTORS) to secure the wheelchair and provide crashworthy restraint for the wheelchair-seated occupant. In the absence of adequate government safety standards, voluntary standards for the design and performance of WTORS, and for wheelchairs used as seats in motor vehicles, have been developed. The initial versions of these standards qualify equipment for use in all types and sizes of motor vehicles using a 30-mph (48-kph), 20-g frontal sled-impact test. The wheelchair standard requires four accessible, crash-tested securement points on wheelchairs so they can be more easily and effectively secured using a four-point strap-type tie-down system. Future voluntary standards are aimed at reducing injury risk for wheelchair-seated occupants in rear impacts and at providing a method for evaluating the crashworthiness of wheelchair seating systems independent of wheelchair base-frames. They also address improved usability and independence for wheelchair-seated travelers using public transportation by specifying universal docking interface geometry for wheelchairs and design and performance requirements for rear-facing wheelchair passenger stations for use in the very low-g environments of large fixed-route transit buses.