Automated Harness Tightener for Child Safety Seat

Minnesota Healthsolutions Corporation, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional morbidity and mortality among children in the United States and a leading cause of brain injury. Brain injuries resulting from the child?s head impacting surfaces in the vehicle during a frontal crash are a significant problem and head injury is the leading cause of death and serious injury for children in crashes. Child safety seats are the most effective way to protect young children involved in motor vehicle crashes from serious injury or death. The limiting of head excursion, which in turn helps prevent the child?s head from impacting surfaces in the vehicle, is a critical child safety seat performance parameter. We propose to develop a child safety seat with innovative technologies that aim to reduce head excursion. A new child safety seat will be designed incorporating these novel technology improvements and the performance of the new seat will be evaluated in formal testing.