A preliminary evaluation of child restraint crash performance with three anchorage systems in a Holden Commodore

This study compared the crash performance of rear-facing and forward-facing child restraints (CRS) with three anchorage systems: standard seatbelt, LATCH (flexible) and ISOFIX (rigid). Frontal (64 km/h) and side impact (15 km/h) HyGe sled tests were conducted using a Holden Commodore sedan buck. Overall, although differences in crash performance measures were evident across restraint types, preliminary findings suggested superior performance of rigid over seatbelt and flexible anchorages, particularly in side impacts. The results also highlight the potential for design improvements for side impact protection including better head containment in forward-facing restraints and improvement in lateral stability afforded by seatbelt and flexible anchorages. The findings have important implications for the proposed introduction of changes to Australian Standards for CRS to permit both flexible and rigid systems to co-exist with conventional seatbelt anchorage systems.