The Universal Coach Safety Seat

The paper presents the new ‘universal’ coach safety twin seat (patent pending). It carries three-point belts, but also protects occupants sitting behind whether empty or fully loaded and whether the rear occupants are unbelted or lap-belted. The extreme 12 g reverse acceleration pulse was applied with seat spacing of 750 mm and 650 mm. The ECE Regulation 80 injury criteria were met in both Hybrid II and Hybrid III dummies (50 %ile, 5 %ile and 95 %ile), as well as the Hybrid III neck injury levels. The seat passed the 76/115/EEC belt anchorage test. With mass of 36.3 kg, conventional materials and production methods, the technical and commercial concept feasibility of such seats was fully demonstrated.