Abstract
Traditionally, child restraint systems (CRS) have been designed to adapt seat belts to the specific build of children. Seat belts are a forward-rearward restraint system and CRS have also been considered to be the same. Nevertheless, the fact is that almost as many children are killed or seriously injured in side impacts as in frontal impacts, particularly when seated in the struck-side rear position.
Current dynamic test standards consist of reproducing a specified deceleration pulse on a sled and this is not enough to obtain an accurate simulation of side impacts. New techniques in side impact sled testing enable the effects of door intrusion to be considered and have helped the ISO WG1 Children in Cars to develop a draft proposal of standard conditions for lateral child impact testing.
IDIADA (Institute for Applied Automotive Research) and RACC (Royal Automobile Club of
Catalonia) designed a sled test program to evaluate the lateral protection offered by CRS which are sold in the city of Barcelona and its surrounding area for the groups 0+ and 1. The test procedure is based on the ISO draft proposal and it intended to be a contribution to the further development of the test methods.