Modular Convertible Child Safety Seat to Improve Usage

Project Summary/Abstract Minnesota HealthSolutions Corporation proposes to develop an innovative all-new convertible child safety seat. Child safety seats are installed in vehicles by properly attaching and tensioning the main anchorage points. Proper use of the attachments is extremely important as these significantly reduce child head injuries in motor vehicle crashes. Attachments are inconveniently located on child safety seats and difficult to use. Several large studies have observed that only 10% to 20% of children are correctly harnessed into correctly installed seats. Improper use of child restraints substantially reduces their effectiveness and is a major public health concern. The proposed child safety seat will be extremely easy-to-use and will dramatically increase the visibility and usability of the attachments. We hypothesize that a child safety seat that provides a convenient, easy-to-use attachment will significantly improve the rate of proper child safety seat usage and reduce vehicle crash-related child injuries and deaths. An interdisciplinary team of researchers has been assembled to define, build, and evaluate a prototype system. The production development will be completed in a rigorous quality-controlled design and testing process to ensure a safe and effective product is produced.