Seating systems are designed for occupant comfort as well as for affording occupant protection in various crash modes. FMVSS No. 207 specifies seat performance criteria, of which, one requires that a seat back withstand a minimum of 373 Nm moment measured about the seating reference point. The sufficiency of this requirement has been a source of significant debate. Some researchers believe that...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of wheelchair seat height on wheeling efficiency and technique during rehabilitation in subjects with a spinal cord injury. DESIGN Laboratory-based study. SUBJECTS Twelve persons with spinal cord injury (age range 19-77 years, lesion level: C5/C6-L2; 7 men; 8 incomplete). METHODS Subjects conducted 8 submaximal hand rim wheelchair exercise tests (4 min) o...

OBJECTIVES This article presents the response of a child-size postmortem human subject using a booster seat in a series of three frontal impact sled tests. METHODS A 54-year-old female cadaver was seated in a booster seat in the rear seat of a buck representing a mid-sized American sedan. Two different restraint systems (conventional belt and pretensioning, force-limiting belt) were used to r...

OBJECTIVE To increase teen seat belt use among drivers at a rural high school by implementing the Drive Alive Pilot Program (DAPP), a theory-driven intervention built on highway safety best practices. METHODS The first component of the program was 20 observational teen seat belt surveys conducted by volunteer students in a high school parking lot over a 38-month period before and after the mo...

Although seat-belts are the most effective means of preventing severe injuries and deaths from road accidents, drivers and passengers in many developing countries neglect to wear them. This study aimed to measure the rate of use of seat-belts and factors affecting their use in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran. In direct observations of 7718 vehicles at randomly selected sites in Tehran, 77.9% o...

Modern car seats are often equipped with adjustable lumbar supports for reducing fatigue and improving ride comfort in different driving conditions. Studies on the effect of lumbar support on seat dynamic performance and ride comfort are not often seen. This experimental study was designed to investigate how lumbar support affects static and dynamic characteristics of the driver seat of a sport...

The objectives of this study were to obtain biomechanical responses of post mortem human subjects (PMHS) by subjecting them to two moderate-speed rear impact sled test conditions (8.5g, 17 km/h; 10.5g, 24 km/h) while positioned in an experimental seat system, and to create biomechanical targets for internal and external biofidelity evaluation of rear impact ATDs. The experimental seat was desig...

This paper investigates the effects of mandatory seat belt laws on driver behavior and traffic fatalities. Using a unique panel data set on seat belt usage in all U.S. jurisdictions, we analyze how such laws, by influencing seat belt use, affect the incidence of traffic fatalities. Allowing for the endogeneity of seat belt usage, we find that such usage decreases overall traffic fatalities. The...