Children In Cars Research Articles

Youth exposure to smoking in the home and in cars: how often does it happen and what do youth think about it?

Aim:Little is known about what youth think about restricting smoking in their homes or in cars. The present study characterises the frequency of youth being exposed to smoking in their...

Activity Levels, Dietary Energy Intake, and Body Composition in Children Who Walk to School

Although differences in daily activity levels have been assessed in cross-sectional walk-to-school studies, no one has assessed differences in body composition and dietary energy intake at the same time. In this study of 239 primary school children, there were no significant differences in daily activity levels, body composition, or estimated dietary energy intake between those who walk to school (WALK) and those who travel by car (CAR; p < .05). WALK children were more active between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. than CAR children (p < .05). In addition, there were no significant differences in the main analysis when participants were subgrouped by gender and age.

A personal perspective on choosing to work toward global child health

A personal perspective on choosing to work toward global child health

ISOFIX – possibilities and problems of a new concept for child restraint systems

The aim of this paper is to present both, the possibilities and the limits of the ISOFIX system. Although ISOFIX shows no better test measurement values than ideal installed conventional restraint systems, it's benefits have been identified in the reduction of misuse. The effect of a third connection of ISOFIX was investigated and the aspect of a general market introduction is discussed. The high usage rate of Child Restraint Systems (CRS) has significantly improved the safety of children in cars. But the anchorage of conventional CRS with the adult seat belt often causes problems leading to major misuse. New GDV studies revealed that even today serious misuse still occurs in about 30% of the CRS in practical use. The increased safety requirements for the anchorage of CRS are difficult to combine with continued optimisation of the adult seat belt. ISOFIX solves these problems and offers a defined, permanently correct anchorage of the CRS, with easier handling and misuse reduction. This report relates to test results comparing conventional CRS (CCRS) and ISOFIX systems using the ECE test bench and real car seats. Within the ideal test configuration, ISOFIX systems show no further benefit compared to CRS, but the latter are more frequently exposed to misuse in practice which may lead to dummy loads that are higher by 30–40%. The different tests on car seats showed that ISOFIX measurement values are clearly below the legal limits (only head excursion is close to the limit) and that the values are significantly better than the comparative values using the ECE test bench. General market introduction and user acceptance urgently require a universal type approval of ISOFIX and thus an amendment of ECE-R 44. In so doing, the requirement must be that every ISOFIX system fulfil the present legal regulations by using the two lower ISOFIX anchorages only which are already internationally harmonised. This study also analysed the effect of an additional top tether; three forward facing ISOFIX seats were subjected with/without a top tether to the FMVSS 213 procedure using a BMW 3 car body with the real seat bench. The top tether values (even head excursion) showed no major improvement and some problems regarding increased chest acceleration. The neck torques generally exceeded the reference limit of 20 Nm. A final international decision regarding a third support should be taken soon, but should be based on comprehensive concrete test results. The different support requirements for forward and rearward facing systems have to be considered as well as proven effectiveness, influence regarding misuse, and biomechanical loads especially to the neck. ISOFIX is not only a modification of a conventional CRS with improved anchorages. It is the opportunity to develop a totally new concept with new solutions for manufacturers and users. By developing the legal framework for ISOFIX and with universal approval, it should be carefully observed that the technical innovative potential of ISOFIX systems will not be restricted but rather promoted, especially in view of daily practical use.

ISOFIX ? possibilities and problems of a new concept for child restraint systems

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present both, the possibilities and the limits of the ISOFIX system. Although ISOFIX shows no better test measurement values than ideal installed conventional restraint systems, it's benefits have been identified in the reduction of misuse. The effect of a third connection of ISOFIX was investigated and the aspect of a general market introduction is discussed. The high usage rate of Child Restraint Systems (CRS) has significantly improved the safety of children in cars. But the anchorage of conventional CRS with the adult seat belt often causes problems leading to major misuse. New GDV studies revealed that even today serious misuse still occurs in about 30% of the CRS in practical use. The increased safety requirements for the anchorage of CRS are difficult to combine with continued optimisation of the adult seat belt. ISOFIX solves these problems and offers a defined, permanently correct anchorage of the CRS, with easier handling and misuse reduction. This report relates to test results comparing conventional CRS (CCRS) and ISOFIX systems using the ECE test bench and real car seats. Within the ideal test configuration, ISOFIX systems show no further benefit compared to CRS, but the latter are more frequently exposed to misuse in practice which may lead to dummy loads that are higher by 30–40%. The different tests on car seats showed that ISOFIX measurement values are clearly below the legal limits (only head excursion is close to the limit) and that the values are significantly better than the comparative values using the ECE test bench. General market introduction and user acceptance urgently require a universal type approval of ISOFIX and thus an amendment of ECE-R 44. In so doing, the requirement must be that every ISOFIX system fulfil the present legal regulations by using the two lower ISOFIX anchorages only which are already internationally harmonised. This study also analysed the effect of an additional top tether; three forward facing ISOFIX seats were subjected with/without a top tether to the FMVSS 213 procedure using a BMW 3 car body with the real seat bench. The top tether values (even head excursion) showed no major improvement and some problems regarding increased chest acceleration. The neck torques generally exceeded the reference limit of 20 Nm. A final international decision regarding a third support should be taken soon, but should be based on comprehensive concrete test results. The different support requirements for forward and rearward facing systems have to be considered as well as proven effectiveness, influence regarding misuse, and biomechanical loads especially to the neck. ISOFIX is not only a modification of a conventional CRS with improved anchorages. It is the opportunity to develop a totally new concept with new solutions for manufacturers and users. By developing the legal framework for ISOFIX and with universal approval, it should be carefully observed that the technical innovative potential of ISOFIX systems will not be restricted but rather promoted, especially in view of daily practical use.

Are seat belt restraints as effective in school age children as in adults? A prospective crash study

Objective: To study effectiveness of seat belts for protecting school age children in road vehicle crashes.Design: Crash examinations by trained investigators.Setting: Ten Canadian university based crash investigation centres.Subjects: 470 children...

Children in cars

Cars are not designed with children in mind. There can be little dispute about that. This will be obvious to any parent obliged to purchase the procession of products necessary for the safe transportation of children. Although children make up nearly 20% of the population, the car industry has yet to design and build cars that afford the same degree of crash protection for children as for adults without the need to buy and install additional safety equipment. The issue is not trivial. In 1995 in England and Wales there were 73 child passenger deaths and 1073 serious injuries. The death rate per passenger mile has fallen, but this has been offset by large increases in car travel.1 Between 1985 and 1994, the number of car miles travelled by children …

Pediatric polytrauma. A retrospective comparison between pediatric, adolescent and adult polytrauma

Numerous epidemiological studies about multiple trauma patients do not include an analysis of patients under the age of 18. To study this, the data of 682 patients with multiple traumata, treated between 1981 and 1991 at Hannover Medical School, Germany, were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into four age-related groups: preschool age (< 6 years), school age (< 13 years), teenagers (< 18 years) and adults (> or = 18 years). Analyzed were the cause of trauma, localization of injuries and the cause of death. Children were less often injured as passengers in cars, but more often injured as pedestrians and bicyclists than adults. However, children showed a significant higher mortality than adults, with threefold increased risk of death when they injured as passengers in car accidents. In all groups injuries to the head and the legs were most common. Children showed a lower incidence of trauma to the thorax, abdomen, hip and arms than the adult group. Nevertheless, trauma to the thorax, abdomen and head was associated with the highest risk of death in all groups. Spinal cord injuries, especially injuries to the neck, also showed a high risk of death. Children younger than 6 years had the most severe head injuries. Safety improvements for children in cars, helmet usage on bicycles and early training in traffic safety for children might decrease the lethality in this group of trauma patients.

Promoting safety using retrospective large databases

Large-scale accident studies are an indispensable tool to idente the focal points of crash occurrence and the benefits of active and passive safety systems. This report describes the requirements on data quality and presents results of retrospective large-scale studies concerning collision types in real-world accidents, effect of safety systems and possibility and limits of car safety assessment. Large-scale studies of the German Motor Insurers (GDV), covering close to 20,000 accidents, indicate that 6 crash configurations cover the majority of fatal car crashes. A weighting procedure of car-to-car and single car crashes, integrated assessment of collision types is described. The effectiveness of safety systems is a typical research field of large-scale accident studies. An analysis of 249 airbag cases showed that driver airbags reduce Serious/fatal injuries by more than 40% compared with seat belt only cases. For passenger airbags, up to now, no clear evidence of injury reduction has been found in general, but their effect in very serious front crashes is thought to be unquestionable. Accident studies with children in cars showed a seven times lower risk for fatal and serious injuries to restrained than to unrestrained children. But Child Restraint Systems (CRS) could be still more efficient. In a study carried out on CRS, it was noticed that serious misuse was found in 33% of cases, misuse including minor faults amounted to 63%. A further study, based on 150 persons, showed that a standardised rigid connection between CRS and vehicle, the ISOFIX-system, would reduce misuse by at least a factor ten. Large-scale studies are a pre-requisite for safety rating systems, which promote the consumer's interest in car safety. In a GDV-research project, the experience with existing safety rating systems has been analysed. Calculations based on uniform accident material, selected from the GDV database, showed that ranking differences mainly relate to the procedure of the rating systems and less to different traffic circumstances in different countries.

Protecting children in cars from tobacco smoke

EDITOR,--There is considerable evidence that exposure of children to environmental tobacco smoke is associated with an increase in morbidity in those with pre-existing asthma and an increase in the number of new cases of asthma.1 2 In Australia, accreditation standards for child care now require that day care centres be smoke free,3 and nearly one in four smokers report voluntarily smoking only outdoors at home.4 While the state regulates many aspects of the …

Head injuries in infants and children: measures to reduce mortality and morbidity in road accidents.

In the 6-year period from 1983 to 1988, 12 infants (less than 24 months of age) and 103 children (2 to 14 years of age) were killed in road crashes in South Australia. This represents an annual incidence of 6.4 deaths per 100,000 children at risk. At least 4 other children were killed in off-road vehicle-related accidents. Of these deaths, approximately half were car passengers, one third pedestrians, and one sixth pedal cyclists. Most of these infants and children died at the accident site or soon after, but 26 of them survived long enough to be admitted to hospitals with neurosurgical units and an audit of these patients suggests that there were at least 3 preventable deaths. However, autopsies of 78 patients show that the great majority of these deaths resulted from devastating brain and/or trunk visceral injuries. Better emergency care and the use of neurosurgical retrieval teams may save some lives. But more lives might be saved by the use of appropriate restraints for infants and children in cars, by reducing the exposure of child pedestrians and cyclists to road traffic, and by mandatory use of helmets by child cyclists. Off-road vehicular accidents are not as a rule included in road crash statistics; the practice of giving small motorcycles to young children has created a new category of vehicular accidents sometimes causing severe head injury.

Restraint of children in cars

Restraint of children in cars

Restraint of children in cars.

Restraint of children in cars.

Traumatic odontoid epiphysiolysis in an infant fixed in a child's car seat

The use of restraints has decisively reduced the mortality and morbidity of children in cars (see IRRD 265122). However, seat belt injuries to blood vessels, chest cage, lumbar spine and viscera, predominantly in adults have been reported in a paper by Williams,JS and Kirkpatrick,JR, entitled 'The nature of seat belt injuries' published in the Journal of Trauma 1971 v11 p207. Injuries to the adult cervical spine that can be related to the proper use of seat belts are rare (see IRRD 239103). This paper illustrates a case of epiphysiolysis of the dens axis in an infant occurring in a traffic accident, although she was fixed properly in an approved child's car seat with an internal seat belt.

Restraining infants in cars.

This brief article discusses injuries to children incurred while travelling in cars. The value of restraining children in cars is discussed, together with surveys of the use of restraint systems in the United Kingdom. Schemes in which the parents of new born infants were lent an infant car seat at minimal cost were also briefly discussed.

Changing the law on children in cars

Changing the law on children in cars

Children in cars. Some aspects of the safety of children as car passengers in road traffic accidents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate child safety in cars from different aspects, such as the epidemiology of child injuries and injury assessment, restraint use effectiveness, restraint use limitations and drawbacks, data quality and improper use of child restraints. The materials used for the studies were of different types and sizes. Insurance materials were used for the epidemiological investigation and supplemented with questionnaires, for studies of restraint use effectiveness. Data on injuries reported by the police were used for studies of data quality and of the limitations and drawbacks of restraint use. Observational studies were conducted to detect improper use of child restraints and these were followed-up by dynamic barrier tests to assess possible consequences in frontal collisions. All injuries were classified according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and the risk of death and disability was predicted by RSC (Rating system for Serious Consequences) with modified figures for children. The main conclusions reached were that injury assessing methods derived for adults can be used also for children with some modifications concerning disability risks. Child restraint use was found to be effective in reducing injuries, especially the use of rearward-facing restraints. Injuries occurring in spite of restraint use were often minor in terms of fatality risks, but injuries to the neck and head may cause long-term consequences. The police was found to report only slightly more than half of the injured children reported to the insurance company. Misuse of child restraints was found to exist and may decrease restraint use effectiveness or induce injuries. On the basis of these studies it is recommended that child restraints be incorporated into cars as an in-built system with the same basic design as restraints that are available as extra equipment. Certain considerations should be paid, however, to those injuries occurring among restrained children that entail a risk of medical disability.

Injuries to restrained children in cars involved in traffic accidents

In road traffic accident research, injuries to persons protected by any safety measure are important subjects of study, as they may provide information on ways in which the measure in question can be developed further.In the present study injuries to children wearing protective restraints who were injured as car passengers in traffic accidents were analysed. The material consisted of all such injured children reported to the police during an 18‐month period. Drivers of the cars in which the children were injured were, when possible, contacted and questioned concerning restraint use, type of restraint, injuries and injury sources. All injuries were coded according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS). The Injury Severity Score (ISS) and the risk of permanent disability were calculated.The material was complementary added with such cases that were not reported by the police but to an insurance company.It is concluded that although child restraints are effective, injuries still occur and thus give reason for further development of car interior safety for children.

Transport of children in cars and the use of child restraints

The object of the study was to examine the use and condition of automotive child restraints and the seating of children in cars. Another object was to examine the use of seat belts by adults, and to survey what the drivers know about how children can be transported safely. The study was made as a roadside study during June and July 1983 in which 1752 cars with 2875 children and 1501 adults (in addition to drivers) were examined. The seat belt was used by 92% of the drivers and 64% of the adults, 13% of the children were secured by means of a restraint device, either a belt or a seat. 5% of adults used a seat belt in the back seats. (TRRL)

Car restraints for children : Eatough R., Savage T., Willson P. and Broomhall J. (1985) Children in cars: how are they being restrained? Br. Med. J.291, 1029

Car restraints for children : Eatough R., Savage T., Willson P. and Broomhall J. (1985) Children in cars: how are they being restrained? Br. Med. J.291, 1029