Abstract
As road traffic accidents are the leading cause of child injuries and deaths, the most common frontal impact is offset impact. Taking into consideration the lack of research on rear seat child occupants’ safety in road accidents, this study focuses on 10-year-old child occupants seated in the rear and establishes an analytical model of child injury during frontal offset impact, which is validated using test data from a real car impact of the same model. The study then examines the effects of restraint system parameters, including seat belt force-limited level, seat belt anchorage position, and seat cushion stiffness, on head, neck, and chest-abdomen injury response in the rear seat child occupants. The study found that reducing the seat belt force-limited level appropriately resulted in a significant decrease in the child occupant’s head resultant acceleration by 39.9% and the upper neck force by 53.2%. Meanwhile, increasing the seat cushion stiffness was found to reduce the child occupant’s head resultant acceleration by 18.8%, the upper neck force by 31%, and the abdominal pressure by 34.4%. This study provides a reference for the protection of rear seat child occupants.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
