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Change to Poster Presentation at the Conference

Transportation Safety

Session: Meet the Author - Poster Session PS-6

1372233 - Relative Safety Assessment for Positioning Children in Vehicles with Varying Levels of Advanced Safety Technologies

Friday, June 16, 2023
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM CST
Room: Governor's Grand Ballroom
Salon ABC
TRACK: Poster Presentation
Auto manufacturers have constantly been redesigning vehicles to increase occupant protection. Recently, there have been many discussions that auto manufacturers have put a great deal of effort into front-seat safety improvements at the expense of other seating locations. This is a topical issue because children are often the likely occupants of rear seats. Findings from studies conducted a few decades ago indicate that the rear seat is the safest for child passengers because of reasons such as airbag deployment injuries and the likelihood of frontal collisions. However, recent
advances in vehicle safety technologies mean that a high proportion of vehicles in the current fleet are different from those used in previous occupant safety studies. Further, cars are becoming generally safer with the advancement of level-2 and level-3 automation and crash prevention technologies. With all of these advancements, the question that needs to be re-examined is: "What is the safest seat for children traveling in Level-2 and above automated vehicles?". This study relies on a mix of quantitative and qualitative assessments to demonstrate the need for continued research on the relative safety of seat positioning for children and vehicle designs and safety technologies evolve. As such, it is intended that this study contributes to an ongoing discussion among researchers and safety officials on child safety in AVs.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees can expect to learn the following from this session:
  • observe how rear-seat occupant protection is trailing while frontal crash prevention technologies have disproportionately improved front-seat occupant safety.
  • notice how injury severity for children varies drastically by seat position
  • assess how injury severity for children will be different in vehicles with advanced safety technologies compared to current vehicles.