Automated Harness Tightener for Child Safety Seat

Project Summary Abstract Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional morbidity and mortality among children in the United States and a leading cause of brain injuryBrain injuries resulting from the child s head impacting surfaces in the vehicle during a frontal crash are a significant problem and head injury is the leading cause of death and serious injury for children in crashesChild safety seats are the most effective way to protect young children involved in motor vehicle crashes from serious injury or deathThe limiting of head excursionwhich in turn helps prevent the child s head from impacting surfaces in the vehicleis a critical child safety seat performance parameterWe propose to develop a child safety seat with innovative technologies that aim to reduce head excursionA new child safety seat will be designed incorporating these novel technology improvements and the performance of the new seat will be evaluated in formal testing Project Narrative We propose to develop a new child safety seat with improved technologies that aim to prevent brain injuries in young children involved in motor vehicle crashesThe societal benefit of the project includes the availability of new technologies to address the leading cause of unintentional death in American children