As part of the New Car Assessment Japan, 7child seat models currently on the market were subjected to comparative safety performance testing. This section, the Child Seat Assessment Japan, provides the results of these tests. The objective of the Child Seat Assessment Japan is to make reliable safety performance data publicly available, making it easier for consumers to choose safer products and encouraging manufacturers to develop safer designs, thereby promoting the spread of safer child seats in the market.
For the purposes of the Child Seat Assessment Japan, test products were subjected to frontal collision tests and usability testing.
While child seats are known abroad by a variety of names, including "CRS" (Child Restraint System) and "CSS"(Child Safety Seat), in Japan "child seat" is the standard phrase used to denote these products.
Frontal collision test
The frontal collision test is used to evaluate the degree of protection the child seat offers a child during a frontal collision. In this test, a child-dummy is placed in a child seat installed in the passenger's seat behind driver's seat of a test vehicle which has been stripped down to its body frame. The test vehicle is then subjected to a shock identical to that experienced during a 55 km/h frontal collision. The safety performance of the child seat is then assessed based on an evaluation of the shock exerted on the dummy's head and chest, and excursion of the dummy's head during the test.
・The speed of the test vehicle at the time of collision is 55 km/h, identical to that of test vehicles undergoing the full-wrap frontal collision test for the purposes of the New Car Assessment Japan. As this testing seeks to evaluate higher-level safety performance, the collision speed for these tests is ten percent greater than the speed of 50 km/h required for collision tests by Japanese safety standards (as defined by the Safety Regulations for Road Vehicles).
・This survey tested rearward-facing infant child seats using a P3/4 dummy representing a 9-month old child, and forward-facing child seats for toddlers using a Hybrid III-3YO dummy representing a 3-year old child are placed respectively.
・In 2003,quantitative measurements using a surface pressure meter were introduced for child seats for toddlers in order to evaluate the degree of pressure applied to the abdomen.
・The Toyota ESTIMA was chosen as the test vehicle, and it should be noted that test results may vary if based on the use of a different test vehicle.
Usability test
Child seats are often installed improperly in actual use. The usability, ease of correct use, test thus evaluates the structure, markings, etc. of the child seat from the perspective of preventing improper use of the product. During testing, five child seat specialists assessed each product according to various survey areas designed to evaluate whether the product is designed to ensure that the user is able to install it properly in the vehicle.
Products tested
Products selected for testing were chosen from among the top-selling child seats (including imports) in Japan from the period of April 2002 to March 2003 in addition products proposed to be tested by child seat manufactures Results of products which conform to new regulations established in 2000,U.S.and Europe regulation(ECE R 44/03 and FMVSS No.213) as well as those of 2003 is provided for reference.
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