Safest-ever child restraint seat created with breakthrough technology used for armoured vehicles With child casualties from road traffic accidents still way too high, a new life-saving technology could greatly improve chances for survival. Transport and Mobility © babyark Ambitious targets of greatly reducing the global number of deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes have been set. But with fatalities still upward of almost 1.3 million deaths, as reported by the World Health Organization, drastic action is needed to meet future global targets and save lives. In Europe alone, 700 children under the age of 15 are killed in traffic accidents and 100 000 are injured. Tragically, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death and injury amongst children under 1 year of age. Safer child restraint systems needed Progress in making safer child restraint systems in the last 10 years is small compared to the advancements made in adult occupant protection in that same period. The EU-funded SAFESEAT project offers a new generation of smart child restraint systems based on breakthrough, multiple patented technology improving safety levels to reduce child casualties and injuries in traffic accidents. The company behind SAFESEAT, Mobius Protection Systems, has engineered a seat based on its successful experience in designing blast-protected military seating systems. With this solid technological backing, it was able to design a seat that increases safety by a factor of 4 compared to statutory requirements and by a factor of 2 compared to the safest products on the market. babyark is born Mobius Protection Systems joined forces with legendary car designer Frank Stephenson, known for his designs of the BMW, MINI, Ferrari, Maserati, McLaren and Fiat 500. Stephenson’s expertise enabled the synergy between engineering and design, leading to an uncompromising product with meticulous detail. Hence, the team combined design with military-grade energy absorption technology and introduced babyark as the safest car seat in the world. “Our mission is to introduce the most advanced technologies and design to set a new level of safety that will significantly reduce car accident-related child mortality and injuries,” explains Shy Mindel, co-founder and CEO of babyark. He continues: “Our technology is based on 11 patents; it was crash-tested in the TASS labs in Holland and proven to reduce head injury risk by 2.5 times compared to leading seats in the market.” Beyond the new standard of safety, babyark was designed to be easy to use and simple to install. This prevents incorrect installation, which is the case in 70 % of installed seats today. Bringing babyark to the market Once babyark receives regulatory certification, the company plans to begin sales in the EU and United States markets and then expand further together with a global distributor. The company has invested a lot of time in research and production technologies to make these technologies and materials affordable in mass production. babyark is committed to making the seats accessible to as many children as possible. It is considering new business models, such as product as a service, so-called PaaS, where payment will be based on usage versus purchase. It’s all about the potential to save children from accident-related injuries and deaths. This is the company’s biggest achievement. “If we can also change parents’ perception about car seats from a barely tolerable (but must-have) product, to an easy-to-use and simple-to-install product, one that parents love, that would be our next greatest achievement, as it will make an even deeper change in the category and bring our safety standard to more children around the world,” concludes Mindel. Keywords SAFESEAT, babyark, safety, traffic accidents, child restraint system, motor vehicle crashes, car seat, absorption technology
