Response of the 6-Month-Old CRABI in Forward Facing and Rear Facing Child Restraints to a Simulated Real World Impact

It is commonly recommended to use infant/child restraints in the rear seat, and that until an infant reaches certain age, weight and height criteria, the infant restraint should be placed rear facing. This paper will describe the injuries suffered by an infant that was restrained in a forward-facing child seat placed in the front passenger seating position during a real world collision. Based on this collision, a full-scale vehicle to barrier impact test was performed. For this test, two 6-month-old CRABI dummies were used in identical child restraints. One of the restraints was placed in the front passenger seat in a forward facing configuration, and the other was placed in the right rear seating position in a rear-facing configuration.

This paper provides a detailed discussion of the results of this test, including comparisons of the specific kinematics for both the restraint/child dummy configurations. In addition, the two 6-month-old CRABI dummies were instrumented with head and chest accelerometers, and an upper neck load cell. The data from these instruments is examined and compared to the observed kinematics for each dummy, and to the injuries suffered in the actual accident. It is shown that the forward facing front seat placement of the 6-month-old and infant/car seat exposes that occupant to at least twice the accelerations and forces compared to rear-facing placement in the rear seat.