Car seat experts at the SAFER conference

Quite a few the worlds car seat experts got together last week for the SAFER conference. It was a great privilege for CarSeat.se to be there. SAFER is a fantastic organization which not only want to discuss and solve car seat issues but are also willing to spend money and resources on this very important area. SAFER is a great resource which simply put is saving many children’s lives each year.

SAFER consists of 25 companies from a wide variety of industries. Main goal for this elite group is to improve traffic and vehicle safety. Chalmers University of Technology hosts the centre and VINNOVA is the main funder. Some other partners are Volvo, VTI, Autoliv, , City of Gothenburg, Folksam Insurance, If Insurance, Hamstad University, Lund University, KTH University, Gothenburg University, Sweco, Scania and Swedish Transport Administration to name a few.

My friend and safety guru Lotta Jakobsson from Volvo was as usual in charge of the conference. Lotta is known worldwide for her expertise in keeping children safe in cars. There are few car seats experts in the world but Lotta is surely one of them. Lotta is the perfect representative for Volvo which has led the world for the past fifty years in making the car a safer place for kids and adults.

What did we discuss at this years conference? This time we focused on forward facing use for kids aged 4-12 years. In Sweden we strongly recommend rear facing to age 4 or longer and then forward facing use in a backless of high back booster. Rear facing is extremely important but we can’t keep our kids rear facing forever:-) Program below:

• Injury risk priorities of the rear seat, Kristy Arbogast PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA

• Injuries to children, with a focus on long term consequences, Katarina Bohman PhD, Autoliv Research and SAFER, Sweden Mark Zonfrillo MD, MSCE, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA

• How children sit and behave in cars during driving and critical events, Isabelle Stockman, Chalmers University of Technology and SAFER, Sweden

• Naturalistic driving studies for child occupants incl a focus on driver distraction, Sjaan Koppel PhD, Monash University, Australia

• Pediatric ATD developments, Paul Lemmen, Humanetics, The Netherlands

• Recent developments in regulation and rating systems relevant to child safety, Costandinos Visvikis, TRL, UK

• Pediatric restraint optimization Matthew Reed PhD, University of Michigan, USA

• Differences between regulation and in vehicle testing for child restraints Matthew Maltese PhD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA

• How to protect children from a real world perspective – balance of child restraints and car protection, Lotta Jakobsson PhD, Volvo Cars, Chalmers and SAFER, Sweden

• Panel Discussion on Child Safety Priorities

Today we often look at child fatalities in traffic. Kids seriously injured is unfortunately an area rarely discussed. Katarina and Mark discussed how important it is to look at the big picture.

One day your child is running around the playground. Next day he/she is alive but in a wheelchair, paralyzed or with other severe disabilities. This tremendous change in lifestyle is not in focus but is often devastating for family and child. More resources and studies are needed in this area to study long term impact of injuries.

Driver distraction and how kids actually behave in cars was presented by Isabella and Sjaan. It doesn’t matter how great are seats are if kids sit poorly in them. What do forward facing kids actually do in the car?

We research this area mainly by mounting cameras in many vehicles and observing what goes on. We can clearly see that many kids are not sitting properly in their forward facing seats. Main issue is that kids are sitting with the head quite far forward leading to extremely or nonexistent side impact protection and higher probability for head trauma.

Todays high back boosters often have large head wings and are also quite thick meaning that body of the child is further forward. Most parents believe the large head wings are great for safety. In reality the head wings are basically useless for safety and can sometimes lead to worse safety for a child.

This leads to a discussion regarding backless vs. high back booster and what is best for a child. Conclusion is that a high back booster is great for kids 4-6 years but that a backless booster is often just as effective, or even more effective, after that.

This area of discussion is very interesting and also touch on practical issues such as transporting three kids across the back seat, side impact protection provided by interior of the car and the issue of kids using electronic devices in the car.

Paul from Humanetics spoke about crash test dummies. Likely a subject too theoretical for most parents but for us car seat experts this area is very interesting and has seen huge improvements during the last 50 years.

A crash test dummy in the beginning was basically a few wooden pieces placed together. Todays crash test dummy is incredibly advanced and does resemble a real child quite well. We are now starting to measure abdominal forces which will be a disaster for any forward facing seat using the shield system. These seats have for far too long avoided real life testing.

The new Q-series of dummies was discussed where forces across the body can be measured more accurately. This is something we use extensively in the Swedish Plus Test, the worlds strictest car seat standard.

In the Plus Test we use a very brutal crash pulse but also measure forces in head of a child. This is why forward facing car seats have no chance of passing the Plus Test. Forces in head and neck during forward facing use are incredibly high.

Constandinos spoke about the current ECE R44 standard and also about the new I-Size standard. The two standards will continue together for many years to come but the changes will be confusing for parents.

For the next few years we will have new seats approved according to the new I-Size standard but there will no few or no I-Size certified cars. The new standard requiring rear facing to at least 15 months of age is good for Europe but a disaster for Sweden.

Our standards and habits in Sweden of keeping children rear facing to age 4 or longer are 30+ years ahead of other countries. It’s a great challenge for Sweden to continue with our current rear facing seats and long rear facing times with the new I-size standard.

Matthew spoke about difference between testing and real life experiences from a US perspective. How does the FVMSS 213 standard compare to real life situations?

Quite a theoretical discussion regarding test sleds, angles, materials, etc. Conclusion is that the current US test sled need to be modernized to better keep up with todays cars.

Lotta had the last presentation of the day speaking about how to keep children safe in the car for a real world perspective. I have seen this presentation before since we work together on the SIS TK242 committee. It’s always goo to hear this presentation since it’s fairly short and look mostly at real life use of car seats.

We discussed best practice, how kids behave in cars, practical issues and what actually goes on when we take three or four kids to soccer practice in one car. What is a safe and practical solution?

Conclusion is that the backless booster is great in many situations despite its poor reputation. A backless booster basically provide the same protection as a high back booster according to research from real life collisions. We need to do a better job in advising parents which car seats offer the best practical solution.

We prefer the high back booster for younger kids, 4-6 years, but a high back booster is not necessarily better for older children. Main reasons are the larger sizes of high back boosters, behavior by todays children and better flexibility of backless boosters.

Booster cushions built into cars offer great protection but are available in few cars except Volvo. These offer great protection and flexibility and are for example standard in most taxis in Stockholm.

Overall a day of very interesting perspectives on car seat safety. A huge thank you to SAFER, Lotta and all the speakers!