The cervical spine of young children is normally very mobile. Consequently, relatively little force is required to cause subluxation of the cervical vertebrae. In this respect, the incidence of cervical spine injuries in children involved in accidents seems to be surprisingly low. However, recent European data seem to indicate that serious cervical spine injuries occur more frequently than had previously been thought. In particular, small children seated in forward facing restraint systems with a harness belt appear to be at risk from tetraplegia in moderate frontal impacts. To investigate the significance of these findings, TNO has undertaken a research programme to measure the neck loads induced in TNO-P3/4 child dummies seated in various restraint systems.
Samenvatting