Statistics show, that motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of children deaths in US and Canada and European Region (where about 700 children die in road accidents each year}. What is even more alarming (despite mandatory use of various CRS) is that this situation has not changed over last few years. We face two main issues: (i) the industrial under-investment in R&D and innovation (i.e. CRS used today are optimized for frontal impact only) and, (ii) the misuse of restraint devices from the costumer side (i.e. wrong belt adjustment). During 2005, in the USA only, costs associated with motor vehicle-related fatal and non-fatal injuries of 0 to 14 years old children were over 3.6 billion USD.
Despite the severity of the problem, research on child endangerment on the roads and on development of prevention/security systems remains surprisingly limited. This applies to both research on accident causes as well to industrial research aiming to improve of existing CRS. Sad truth is that such valuable programme like Australian CREP was never repeated in EU. What's more, European and American child restraints makers reluctantly include CREP findings in their products. The simple rule says: don't go beyond regulations, because its expensive.
The objective of the SAFECHILD project is to significantly improve safety of children transported in private vehicles. The ultimate goal is to put in the market a system, that will offer children transported in motor vehicles protection level that is not achieveable for any other child seat.
