Abstract
This paper explores the relative safety of different methods of transporting small children in school buses. The creation of a passive compartment by means of energy absorbing seats has proven effective in protecting children in the past but the concept depends on the mass of the child to deform the seat. It has not been demonstrated to be effective in protecting pre-school or very small children in the event of a collision. The school bus network in Canada is increasingly called upon to transport children of ages as low as ten months to day care centres pre-school classes and on activity trips.
The paper presents research conducted to test occupant restraints on current school bus seats utilizing an acceleration sled. The objectives of the study were: (1) to explore differences in performance between restrained and unrestrained anthropometric test devices (ATDs) on school bus seats; (2) to explore whether differences in head and chest acceleration can be related to restraint system type, ATD size, collision direction, restraint system installation orientation, and tie-down; (3) to explore for what age restraint systems of various types seem appropriate.
It was found that the various criteria produced similar values for unrestrained and restrained 6-year old ATDs. The criteria for the unrestrained 3-year old and especially the unrestrained 18-month old ATDs produced poorer values than restrained. MOMS and Integrated child restraints performed well with the 18-month old ATDs; Integrated and Century STE performed well with the 3-year old ATDs; all restraint systems performed well with the 6-year old ATDs, except for the head acceleration of the Harness restraints.
Based on the performed analysis, it could be concluded that the 6-year old ATDs would appear adequately protected while unrestrained, while the 3-year and 18-month old ATDs would appear to require restraint to be adequately protected on a school bus seat. Infant carriers did not provide full protection when two adult unrestrained ATDs were placed behind them. Although results suggest that the 3-year old ATDs would be better off restrained, due to the high variability in the test scores, this conclusion should be re-evaluated and confirmed with further tests.