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Head injuries are the most common injuries sustained by children in motor vehicle crashes regardless of age, restraint and crash direction. Previous research identified the front seat back as relevant contact point associated with head injuries sustained by restrained rear seated child occupants. The objective of this study was to conduct a test series of headform impacts to seat backs to evaluate the energy management characteristics of relevant contact points for pediatric head injury. A total of eight seats were tested: two each of 2007 Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla, 2006 Volvo S40, and 2008 Volkswagen Golf. Five to six contact points were chosen for each unique seat model guided by contact locations determined from real world crashes. Each vehicle seat was rigidly mounted in the center track position with the seatback angle adjusted to 70 degrees above the horizontal.

The research of AIS1 neck injuries has focused on rear-end collisions, but a great portion of these injuries occur in frontal impacts. AIS1 neck injuries in frontal impacts can be associated with seat belt use and it can be hypothesized that the seat belt may transfer injurious loads to the neck. This study investigates the influence of the restraint system on the neck loads by using mechanical as well as mathematical (MADYMO) models of the HIII 50th percentile dummy. The mathematical simulations were based on 168 frontal crash pulses collected from crash recorders, installed in passenger cars in Sweden. The neck loads were evaluated by a new neck injury criterion NIC protraction, the upper neck flexion moment and the Nij criterion. It was found that a pretensioner, a load limiter or an airbag have the potential to reduce the neck loads below recently suggested reference values for long-term neck injuries only as well as short- plus long-term neck injuries.