Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick, NSW, Australia.
The George Institute for Global Health, Newtown, Australia.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2022;23(7):446-451. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2022.2098280. Epub 2022 Jul 27.
Ergonomic design of child restraint systems (CRS) may facilitate optimal travel behavior and crash protection of child passengers during motor vehicle trips. However there have been few studies examining the relationship between CRS design and child passenger travel behavior. The aim of this study was to examine whether associations between CRS design features and child passenger behavior exist during real-world, everyday vehicle trips.
Video from a naturalistic driving study (NDS) was analyzed in this study. Families drove an instrumented study vehicle for approximately two weeks with at least one child aged between one and eight years traveling in their own forward-facing (FF) CRS or belt positioning booster (BPB). Video for one child passenger was randomly selected from each trip for analysis. Video was coded for five-second epochs at nine time points (5%, 17%, 25%, 30%, 50%, 53%, 75%, 89% and 95% of trip length). Two types of child passenger travel behaviors were identified by manual review of the video and audio recordings: (i) optimal/suboptimal head position and (ii) correct/incorrect use of the internal harness/shoulder belt. Video screenshots were used to characterize CRS design features. Random effects logistic regression models were used to examine the associations between specific CRS design features and the travel behaviors of interest, whilst accounting for clustering of data by child and trip.
Suboptimal head position was associated with the absence of a height adjustable headrest and a narrow headrest wing width in FFCRS. Incorrect harness use in a FFCRS was associated with the absence of an adjustable headrest, in addition to headrest features such as wing width and depth. In BPBs, a reduction in suboptimal head position was associated with the absence of a sash belt guide, however no restraint design features were associated with incorrect shoulder belt use.
Some CRS design features may influence undesirable child passenger travel behavior. These early findings support enhanced and user-centric CRS design as a likely important mechanism to improve child passenger safety.
儿童约束系统（CRS）的人体工程学设计可能有助于优化儿童乘客在机动车旅行中的出行行为和碰撞保护。然而，很少有研究探讨 CRS 设计与儿童乘客出行行为之间的关系。本研究的目的是检验在现实世界的日常车辆旅行中，CRS 设计特征与儿童乘客行为之间是否存在关联。
本研究分析了一项自然驾驶研究（NDS）的视频。这些家庭驾驶一辆装有仪器的研究车辆大约两周，至少有一名 1 至 8 岁的儿童在自己的正向（FF）CRS 或安全带定位助推器（BPB）中乘坐。从每次旅行中随机选择一名儿童乘客的视频进行分析。视频按 5 秒的时间间隔进行编码，共 9 个时间点（行程长度的 5%、17%、25%、30%、50%、53%、75%、89%和 95%）。通过手动查看视频和音频记录来识别两种类型的儿童乘客出行行为：（i）头部位置最佳/不理想，以及（ii）内部安全带/肩带使用正确/不正确。使用视频截图来描述 CRS 设计特征。使用随机效应逻辑回归模型，在考虑到儿童和行程数据聚类的情况下，检验特定 CRS 设计特征与感兴趣的出行行为之间的关联。
FFCRS 中，头部高度不可调且头枕侧翼较窄与头部位置不理想有关。FFCRS 中，安全带使用不正确与头枕不可调有关，此外还与头枕的侧翼宽度和深度等特征有关。在 BPB 中，头枕位置不理想的情况减少与肩带安全带导板缺失有关，但没有约束设计特征与肩带使用不正确有关。
一些 CRS 设计特征可能会影响儿童乘客的不良出行行为。这些早期发现支持增强和以用户为中心的 CRS 设计，这可能是提高儿童乘客安全性的一个重要机制。
