Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Experimental sled tests have highlighted the potential for extreme occupant excursion out of the BPB in side impact crash conditions. Using data from a large child specific crash surveillance system, the present study built upon these previous studies and quantified the relative effectiveness of BPB as compared to seat belts in reducing the risk of injury among 4β8 year olds in side impact crashes.
This differential performance of the two types of BPB provides direction for future research into the design and performance of these restraints. The protection of children in side impacts has attracted considerable attention in the safety community as these crashes represent a significant burden on society.
Several studies have examined the injury and fatality pattern for children in side impact crashes. In analyses of children from 0β14 years of age admitted to a trauma center, Orzechowski et al documented injuries of elevated severity in side impacts as compared to frontal crashes and further identified a pattern of injuries in side impact crashes to include those to the head, cervical spine and chest Orzechowski et al.
Our previous work demonstrated that the benefits of rear seating previously shown for frontal crashes extended to side impact crashes for children age 0β15 years Durbin et al. Howard et al examined the role of seat position on the injury risk to children age 0β12 years in side impact crashes using a sample of children admitted to two trauma centers as well as analyses of the National Automotive Sampling System NASS and FARS.
In this study, the elevated injury and fatality risk associated with the struck side seat position was highlighted Howard et al. All of these studies focused on children of a broad age range, thus including an array of restraint conditions limiting the applicability of the findings to a particular restraint type.
