Seat belt designs to protect pregnant vehicle occupants

Various restraint systems to protect vehicle occupants in case of an accident have been specifically designed for pregnant women and the ideas are filed for patents. The concepts cover a wide range of designs; from ‘add-on’ to standard 3-point seat belt solutions to relatively complex mechatronics applications. Auxiliary tools and equipments to offer lap belt solutions constitute the majority of the reviewed patents. Designs also vary according to their working principles. Some designs exclusively focus on the lap belt part of the seat belt, whereas some others attempt to resolve the problem from a broader perspective, offering overall seat belt solutions with or without the use of standard seat belt. In this article around forty patented ideas on seat belt designs for pregnant women are reviewed, classified and presented, highlighting the working principles and inventors’ claims

Pregnant driver injury investigations through modelling and simulation of full-frontal crashes with and without airbags

Road traffic accidents have become increasingly important element in maternal deaths. It is important to investigate the injury mechanisms and injury levels that pregnant women may be subjected to in order to improve transport safety. The three dimensional computational model ‘Expecting’, which embodies a detailed multi-body model of a fetus in a finite element model of a uterus with a placenta, is developed at Loughborough University. The model is designed to simulate dynamic loading conditions that pregnant occupant may experience. In this study, ‘Expecting’ is used to study the kinematics of pregnant occupants to predict the injury levels to the pregnant driver in frontal crashes. The implications of ‘No restraint’, ‘Seat Belt Only’ and ‘Seat Belt & Airbag’ cases are investigated for various crash severities, from 15 to 45 kph. Crash analysis injury criteria such as Head Injury Criterion (HIC), 3ms maximum, Combined Thoracic Index (CTI) and Viscous Criterion (Max VC) are used. The results suggest that the frontal airbag together with the correctly worn seatbelt provide better protection for the pregnant drivers

Pregnant driver injury investigations in oblique crashes

Kinetics and kinematics of an oblique impact are different when compared to frontal collisions. The objective of this research is to simulate various oblique crash scenarios that pregnant drivers may experience by using the computational pregnant occupant model, ‘Expecting’ and investigate potential injuries that pregnant drivers may suffer. Half-sine acceleration pulses representing crash speeds 15kph to 45kph are used in the simulations. Oblique impact simulations are conducted both from the nearside and the farside (offside) of the vehicle. The placental abruption and hence fetus mortality risks during oblique crashes are compared with the full-frontal impact cases

Investigation into suitability of current ATDs to represent ageing drivers

Ageing car occupants are expected to become a larger part of the driver and passenger population in developed countries in the future. Currently, Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATDs) are essential tools to assess safety of automobiles; however, they do not fully embody the features of all occupant groups in the world population. This study investigates the features of ageing drivers. The data are collected and analysed with respect to age and gender. Information particularly on driver-automobile interaction is provided in the form of distances and angles measured in-car. The physical characteristics of existing ATDs are investigated and compared with the anthropometric data of ageing drivers. Comparisons indicate that the current ATDs do not incorporate some of the features of ageing drivers. The requirements of future ATDs such as sitting height, abdominal depth and posture are discussed. These specifications are essential for the development of new ATDs representing ageing drivers. © 2013 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC