Fuer Kinder in Deutschland existiert im Pkw weiterhin ein hoeheres Risiko, im Strassenverkehr bei einem Unfall schwer verletzt oder getoetet zu werden, als es fuer ungeschuetzte Verkehrsteilnehmer wie Fahrradfahrer oder Fussgaenger besteht. Dies erscheint auf den ersten Blick nicht nachvollziehbar, da der Pkw und die vorgeschriebenen Kindersitze den Kindern eine hohe Sicherheit bieten muessten. Der vorliegende Projektbericht gibt Aufschluss ueber den aktuellen Stand der Sicherheit von Kindern im Pkw in Deutschland und zeigt Optimierungspotenzial auf. Die Schutzwirkung der Kindersitze haengt von mehreren Faktoren ab. Dabei stehen technische Aspekte, die hier detailliert untersucht wurden, im Vordergrund. Doch vor allem in den letzten Jahren zeigte sich immer wieder in Feldstudien, aber auch in der Unfallanalyse, dass Kinderschutzsysteme (KSS) oftmals nicht nach den Vorgaben installiert wurden. Wenn der Kindersitz und/oder das Kind nicht entsprechend der Bedienungsanleitung gesichert werden, kann sich das Schutzpotenzial der KSS reduzieren und gegen Null gehen. Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass prinzipiell fuer Kinder ein gutes Schutzniveau durch KSS besteht, was aber von KSS zu KSS verschieden sein kann. Die teureren KSS wiesen keine mechanische Zerstoerung auf und ueberstanden alle Tests ohne ernsthafte Beschaedigungen. Bei den "Billig-Kindersitzen" ergab sich leider ein komplett anderes Bild. Sobald die Anforderungen ueber die Gesetzgebung hinausgehen, ist immer weniger Schutz fuer die Kinder vorhanden. Besonders im Seitenaufprall offenbarten sich erhebliche Luecken in der Sicherheit. Trotz des hohen Schutzpotenzials einiger Kindersitze ist das Ende der Entwicklung noch nicht abzusehen. In allen Kindersitzklassen ist es prinzipiell moeglich, die Belastungswerte weiter zu reduzieren. Dazu werden am Ende des Berichtes verschiedene Moeglichkeiten aufgezeigt. Abschlussbericht zum Forschungsprojekt 82.230/2002 (ITRD-Nummer D707788) der Bundesanstalt fuer Strassenwesen. Zugleich Dissertation an der TU Berlin, Fachgebiet Kraftfahrzeuge, Institut fuer Land- und Seeverkehr. Titel in Englisch: Improvement of child restraint systems in cars. (Author/publisher) English title: Improvement of child restraint systems in cars. English abstract: This project report summarises the status quo of child safety in cars in Germany. The risk for children travelling in cars of being injured or killed in accidents is high due to growing traffic on the road. More children died in cars than as pedestrians or cyclists. This seems not to be logical, as children in cars have to use an appropriate child restraint system (CRS). This system and the car around the CRS should provide a high level of safety. The effectiveness of CRS depends on more than one topic. The technical aspects are in the main focus of most investigations. In the last years different investigations and accident analyses showed high numbers of CRS which were not correctly installed in cars. If the CRS is not installed according to the manual of the car or CRS manufacturer, or the child is not secured correctly (misuse), the level of safety of the CRS decreases. In some cases of misuse the benefit is completely lost and the CRS could even become dangerous for the child and other occupants. During the study it was not possible to assess the level of safety of different CRS in any given accident constellations coming from the accident analysis. Only the definition of test procedures is possible to combine some accident constellations. This leads to a minor number of test procedures for frontal and side impact tests. However, test procedures in laboratories are not capable of reproducing all different combinations of the real world. In reality, the level of safety depends on the interaction between the car and the CRS. Assessments of CRS by different test institutes should have the same rating otherwise consumers would be confused by different ratings for the same CRS. Unfortunately, at the moment this confusion exists. There is still the problem to assess the level of safety of CRS in general. More than 100 tests were performed to measure the level of safety of today’s common CRS. In four different test procedures well known CRS and non-branded ones were assessed. Counter measures in the CRS design to improve the safety level have been identified based on the measurements of dummy loadings. The safety of some CRS is currently at a high level. All well known products were not damaged in the tests. Polystyrene is used in some CRS as energy absorption and damping material. This worked very efficiently. The performance of non-branded CRS was mostly worse than the well known products. In tests with higher loadings to the CRS than in the ECE-R44 the measurements of dummy loadings were higher and this means the level of safety for children was lower. During the side impact test procedures bad results were achieved. Not all test procedures are able to show these design and production failures. The reason for this could be the test procedures themselves. The current situation shows that some further improvement of all CRS groups is possible to reduce dummy loadings. In this study different investigations and prototypes are presented. One prototype is a Group 0 baby seat. The rearward facing CRS turns the dummy to a better position to sustain the loadings. The energy for the motion is coming only from the inertia of the system. On the other hand the study shows possibilities to improve the ISOFIX system. It has better performance and handling conditions but is not well known in the market. This should be changed as fast as possible because of the high safety level of such ISOFIX-CRS. All named improvements show there are possibilities to increase today’s high level of safety for children travelling in cars. But not all CRS are achieving good results. For that reason improved test procedures are also needed. These will lead to new products with higher safety levels. (Author/publisher)
Abstract