Transportation Safety Requirements in the Use of Pushchairs on Buses

Abstract

[EN] The safe use of buses by passengers travelling with pushchairs for young children is a mobility problem that has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. The lack of national and international standards in this area in the past led to the development of a research project developed jointly by the Universitat Politècnica València and the Universidad Politècnica Madrid (Spain). This paper shows a comparative study to evaluate the dynamic behaviour in case of low-g accidents reproducing frontal impacts resembling real traffic events (deceleration 2g, ΔV 20 km/h) of a new pushchair restraint system against the use of back-restraint by pushchairs as establishes R 107- 06 series of amendments. In the dynamic trials, three pushchair restraint prototypes and a typical wheelchair back-restraint system combined with two worst-case up-to-date pushchair models in misuse and correct use configurations were tested. The results demonstrated the need for preventing children injuries as a consequence of low-g accidents. The new design meets and improves the latest revision of regulation R107 regarding the use of restraint systems for the transport of wheelchair and pushchair passengers and represents an advance for pushchairs travelling on buses.