Together with the German "Auto Motor und Sport" magazine, TÜV SÜDDEUTSCHLAND has conducted crash tests with more than 60 different child restraint systems (CRS) for age groups of 0 and 1 years old. The objectives of these tests were: (1) to test the risk of injury to children in car accident; (2) to reduce misuse of CRS in cars; (3) to improve existing CRS; and (4) to optimize standard ECE-R 44. The test arrangement described in this poster differed substantially from the ECE test standard. In the authors' opinion it is not enough to test only whether a CRS meets the legal requirements of a standardized test method. Additional tests must be carried out with actual vehicles as the fastening methods for securing CRS differ extremely. ECE-R 44 is currently in revision, and hopefully the changes will result in a more effective standard. Stricter and optimized testing methods will further improve the effectiveness of CRS. (A)
Abstract