Safety in the car > Airbag and CRS
Why does the front passenger seat airbag have to be turned off when a rear-facing infant seat is put into place? Do the side airbags have to be turned off? To answer these questions, this Campaign has conducted a crash test combining both of these two aspects, providing some results which may serve parents to better understand the importance of following the on-board vehicle safety recommendations.Results of the CSR test with rear-facing infant seat and front airbag.The crash test revealed two risk levels for a child seated in the passenger seat: Direct impact with dashboard at 75ms, due to the effect of the force of the vehicle seat, infant seat and dummy shift position and pitch forward, the dummy’s head being left unprotected and hitting the dashboard. Although the 50 km/h level at which the test was performed did not reveal any fatalities, the tremendous risk involved of a small child’s delicate head hitting the dashboard is obvious. Airbag inflating. The airbag covered the area of the restraint system, exerting pressure on the small child. On one hand, the airbag suddenly inflating and, on the other, the risk is very high given how very close the line along which the airbag inflates is located to such a vulnerable body region as a small child’s head. Static Airbag Inflation. Analysis of the influence of the curtain airbag on the rear side seats with an occupied Group 1-2 child safety seat in place.This test was aimed at providing an answer to many parents wondering whether the same thing that applies to the front passenger seat, where the airbag must be turned off when a child is riding in a rear-facing seat, also applies to the side airbags on the back seats. The test consisted of suddenly inflating a side airbag with a Group I system outfitted with a P3 Dummy (equivalent to simulating a 3-year-old child) seated in the left rear seat in a CasualPlay Beat S w/o ISOFIX child seat in order to test the possible degrees of sideways movement as best possible. The distance between the CSR and the area of influence of the side airbag was conditioned by the three-point belt itself, hence there being no possibility of the test results being any different under the same parameters. The injury figures found for the dummy are practically negligible. For this CSR and side airbag configuration, the curtain airbag possibly opening would having only a minimal bearing.
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