Trauma to Children in Forward-Facing Car Seats

One of the leading causes of death and disability among young children is motor vehicle accidents. Although current child restraint systems (car seats) have significantly reduced mortality and morbidity, deaths and injuries still occur. Since it is not possible to correlate human child injury potential with the biomechanical devices used for high level impact testing using experimental methods, the acquisition and analysis of specific child injury data identifiable with real world automobile crashes is critical for input to biomechanical research, anthropometric test device (ATD) development and safety standard revisions. The purpose of this study was to analyze vehicular-related trauma that had occurred to children in known crash environments based on accident configuration and car seat design.