Design of a newborn child dummy
A large amount of research had been conducted on the safety of adult vehicle occupants; however, the same was not true regarding children. Using prior research from a previous project, the CHILD project focused on ways to increase knowledge about children's vehicle occupant safety. More specifically, the project found ways to implement this information in child restraint design applications, evaluation testing and regulation. What resulted was a highly worthy source of realistic world-wide crash injury information which was compiled within the framework of child restraint testing and regulations. In the project's initial stages, a newborn dummy was not in existence for use in accident reconstructions. TNO, the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research, developed the Q0-dummy which represents a newborn child. The dummy weighs 3.4kg and has achieved the biofidelity requirements for head and neck, the two most vulnerable body parts of a newborn in a car. The dummy was proven durable in a test program and three prototypes were planned.
