Easy-to-use Electric Low Anchor Tether Winch for Child Car Seats

描述(申请人提供)：机动车碰撞是美国儿童死亡的主要原因。儿童安全座椅为机动车中的儿童提供了更多的保护，并已被观察到将死亡和伤害率降低了70%以上。儿童必须在正确安装的儿童安全座椅上系好安全带，以实现最大限度的保护。几项大型研究发现，只有10%到20%的儿童正确地将安全带正确地安装到了座椅上。最常见的错误之一涉及在车辆中安装儿童安全座椅。在2002年前生产的大多数车辆中，儿童安全座椅都是使用车辆安全带安装的。在2002年以后的车辆中，可以使用儿童下锚和儿童护套(闩锁)系统安装儿童安全座椅。闩锁设计用于使儿童安全座椅的安装变得更容易，方法是在座椅靠背(座椅靠背和座垫的交叉处)处提供两个较低的锚，儿童座椅上的刚性或柔性带子将固定在该座椅上。无论连接形式如何，安全带或弹性闩锁带必须用力拉紧(大于30磅)。通常)以实现正确的安装。最近的研究发现，50%到100%的被检查的儿童安全座椅用安全带固定得太松了。同样，与闩锁安装相关的最常见错误被观察到是下部锚带松动，这在30%的安装中被观察到。松动的儿童安全座椅锚增加了儿童安全座椅和车辆之间的相对运动，从而增加了乘员，特别是头部与车辆内部碰撞的可能性。本项目的目标是开发一种廉价的动力可伸缩的儿童安全座椅用柔性下锚带。这种动力锚带将降低适当地拧紧儿童安全座椅所需的体力和灵活性。我们假设，电动锚带将提高适当的儿童安全座椅安装率，从而减少儿童中的机动车碰撞伤亡。 与公共健康相关：该项目涉及改进儿童安全座椅。拟议的电动儿童安全座椅锚带的市场年销量超过230万个。美国大约有2000万4岁以下的儿童。法律要求所有人都必须乘坐儿童安全座椅。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. Child safety seats provide increased protection for children in motor vehicles and have been observed to reduce death and injury rates by more than 70%. A child must be properly belted into a properly installed child safety seat to achieve maximum protection. Several large studies have observed that only 10% to 20% of children are correctly harnessed into correctly installed seats. One of the most common errors involves the installation of the child safety seat in the vehicle. In most vehicles manufactured prior to 2002, a child safety seat is attached using the vehicle safety belts. In vehicles newer than 2002, a child safety seat may be attached using the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) system. LATCH is designed to make installation of child safety seats easier by providing two lower anchors at the seat bight (the intersection of the seat back and cushion) onto which a rigid or flexible strap from a child seat is attached. Regardless of attachment modality, a seatbelt or flexible LATCH strap must be aggressively tensioned (greater than 30 lbs. typically) to achieve proper installation. Recent studies have observed from 50% to 100% of inspected child safety seats held in place by safety belts were too loose. Similarly, the most common error associated with LATCH installations has been observed to be a loose lower anchor strap, which was observed in 30% of installations. Loose child safety seat anchors increase the relative movement between the child safety seat and the vehicle thus increasing the likelihood of impact of the occupant, in particular of the head, with vehicle interior. The objective of this project is to develop an inexpensive power-retractable flexible lower anchor strap for child safety seats. This powered anchor strap will reduce the physical strength and agility required to properly tighten a child safety seat. We hypothesize that a powered anchor strap will increase proper child safety seat installation rates, thereby reducing motor vehicle crash injuries and deaths among children. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project involves an improvement to child safety seats. The available market for the proposed powered child safety seat anchor strap exceeds 2.3 million units annually. There are approximately 20 million children under 4 years of age in the United States. All are required by law to ride in child safety seats.