2134/24757 Alessandro Alejandro Alessandro Alejandro Joshua Gidney Joshua Gidney Phillippe Lesire Phillippe Lesire Alan Kirk Alan Kirk Liz Dodson Liz Dodson Gerd Muller Gerd Muller Ines Lehmann Ines Lehmann Heiko Johannsen Heiko Johannsen Britta Schnottale Britta Schnottale Reakka Krishnakumar Reakka Krishnakumar Assessment of solutions to improve the restraint conditions of children in vehicles [Deliverable 4.6 of the EC FP7 Project CASPER] Loughborough University 2017 Use of child restraint systems CRS solutions CRS regulations Child safety campaigns CRS design Child safety education Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified 2017-04-21 09:10:53 Report https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/report/Assessment_of_solutions_to_improve_the_restraint_conditions_of_children_in_vehicles_Deliverable_4_6_of_the_EC_FP7_Project_CASPER_/9353258 The purpose of this report was to provide applications and research results for the improvement of child protection systems. As well as considering the effect any CRS improvements would have on policies or any legislation that would need to be created or improved. The issue of cost and subsidies for child restraints is considered. Research on the effectiveness of interventions is reported and recommendations on future policies are made. Results from the sociological survey carried out as part of the CASPER project proved to be an extremely valuable resource as many of the proposed solutions are based on information gathered in the survey. As child safety is of global importance the CASPER project gathered data relevant to child safety laws and regulations from a large array of countries this data is displayed in this report. Recent statistics show that a large percentage of CRS are misused, this project aims to reduce this figure by implementing innovative designs and creating new legislation. To list some of the ways CRS are being misused: they are being incorrectly installed i.e. putting a rearward facing device in a forward facing position or incorrectly fastening the seatbelt to the device. Parents play a key role in child safety and this is researched in great depth within this project. Research was carried out in to ways of preventing these types of CRS misuse as well as researching other problems with CRS such as the issue with transporting children with disabilities. The proposed solutions are presented alongside any issues that might occur. One of the key areas of CRS improvement is Car-to-CRS communication, this ties in with integrated CRS as the idea is to make CRS fully homologated for the car. ISOFIX involves having anchors built into the car which CRS can fix onto. The next step is to develop Car-to-CRS communication so that the CRS can benefit from the cars safety features. Car manufacturers can also build CRS directly into the car creating integrated CRS which are also considered in this document. At the moment CRS are predominantly used in cars, however they could also be used in aeroplanes, trains and busses. Although they would have to be optimised for each of the different situations, for example the CRS for aeroplanes would focus more on preventing injuries caused by turbulence than crashing. During this project the CASPER consortium investigated and evaluated the systems which are currently available or currently being developed. This was done by analysing the demands and applications in terms of research, development and approval of CRS for child protection.