Better protecting children on Europe's roads
The 'Child advanced safety project for European roads' (CASPER) project recognised that a comprehensive approach to stepping up child safety in road transport must involve public regulation, road-user education, road infrastructure, compatibility between vehicles, and active, passive and tertiary safety devices. CASPER partners addressed many issues explored in related research projects which did not, however, consider children (e.g. adult occupants, biomechanics, injury tolerances, dummy and human body modelling and virtual simulations). It is therefore not surprising that there is a lack of child biomechanical data, and that existing regulations, test procedures and standards related to children are based on scaled-down adult data. In light of these and other shortcomings, CASPER focused on improving child protection through the development of innovative tools for child restraint system (CRS) manufacturers to better develop and test their products. Project researchers also analysed the reasons for and consequences of CRS misuse, and the conditions of transportation of children. Mobilising a significant body of Europe's scientific and business experts in the field of passive safety related to children, CASPER's 15 partners from 7 countries set out to use existing data related to injuries of children and to fill in the gaps where possible. Project results point to a number of serious issues in the transport of children, not least of which is the actual use of restraint systems by caretakers. Particularly important project successes include the development and validation of an abdominal sensor for child dummies and, on the basis of physical accident reconstructions, an updated set of injury criteria for children. The latter will be published and integrated in test procedures. From harmonising data collection and storage processes to proposing new protection criteria for application in test procedures, the EU-funded CASPER project has made important advances in the area of child transport and safety. The practical implementation of various project findings will undoubtedly serve to drive down fatalities and injuries sustained by children during road transportation.
