Is New Nhtsa Crash Test Device The Best Tool To Evaluate Child Car Seats?

Is New Nhtsa Crash Test Device The Best Tool To Evaluate Child Car Seats?

Safety restraints significantly reduce the risk of suffering serious injury in a crash, saving the lives of an estimated 13, 250 passenger vehicle occupants over the age of 4 in 2008, according to the Federal Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHTSA ). The agency estimates that if all passenger vehicle occupants in this age assemblage had been restrained that while, an additional 4, 152 lives could have been saved. A car accident that recently occurred in Orange County, California illustrates the dangers of neglecting to properly secure children in vehicles. While safety restraints save lives, the agency responsible for testing them, the NHTSA, may still absence the equipment necessary to evaluate car seats for numerous children, explains an attorney.
According to the NHTSA, motor vehicle collisions are the primary cause of death for children ages 3 to 14, on average claiming the lives of 4 children and injuring 529 every day in 2008. Safety restraints can minimize the impact of a crash and prevent the ejection of passengers from the vehicle, the second being one of the most injurious events that can happen to an resident.
A recent car accident in Orange County illustrates the importance of safety restraints for preventing injury. In early February 2012, all of the members of a family were injured in a crash erase for the youngest, the only one in the vehicle who was restrained. The accident occurred in Source Valley when the driver of a hoary Volvo gamy left into the path of a nigrescent BMW, causing a head - on impact. Neither the parents in the BMW, nor their 5 - and 6 - eternity - olds were wearing safety belts; all suffered trauma. Only the infant, who was restrained, was not hurt, reported the Orange County Register.
Although the NHTSA has always happy all vehicle occupants—young and old—to lifeless safety restraints, it is now recommending that parents keep their children in rear - facing safety seats longer and to wait until they outgrow the elevation and upper hand limitations on their seats before energetic them, whether from rear - facing to doughty - facing or from safety to booster.
Such recommendations resulted in a need for seats with exceptional rule capacities. With an ongoing quantity of restraints on the market for children weighing 65 to 80 pounds, the NHTSA was tasked with testing their function at preventing injuries during crashes. The beginning responded by commissioning the Group of Automotive Engineers ( SAE ) Tracery Family Task Body ( DFTG ) to grow a test delineation individualizing of a 10 - eternity - elderly child. In initial crash tests using the chart, it was evident that it was not accurately simulating the end of an impact on a child: with a stiffer spine and a harder chest than a rightful child’s, the dummy’s head would snap down into its chest on impact, causing an unrealistically high crash fury on its head, reported The Washington Post.
While the NHTSA has implemented new strategies for positioning the dummy during tests to bring about greater correctness, it still has not corrected the characteristics contributing to shady effect concerning the potential for head injury, prompting it to eliminate head injury criteria from its testing procedures.
As the car accident that recently occurred in Orange County illustrates, safety restraints can significantly reduce the risk of injury from an impact, explains an attorney. However, until the NHTSA’s crash test dummy can accurately measure forces to the head during an accident, it may not be the best tool for assessing the safety of child car seats.