Child Anthropometry for Improved Vehicle Occupant Safety
AUTHOR(S): Kathleen DeSantis Klinich, Matthew Reed
A detailed understanding of the size, shape, and postures of children is required to design effective restraint systems for protecting children in motor vehicle crashes. Compiled and edited by experts in the fields of anthropometry, ergonomics, and child restraint, this book includes 14 important papers which provide a comprehensive overview of the methods for collecting, analyzing, and applying child anthropometry data for crash safety purposes.
Papers cover:
The application of child anthropometry for the development of crash dummies, also known as anthropometric test devices (ATDs)
Traditional anthropometry methods, including the most important U.S. studies of child anthropometry conducted at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in the 1970s
Research on external and internal body shape
Functional studies, including posture measurements
A detailed bibliography of over 25 additional non-SAE papers on child anthropometry is also included.
Dr. Klinich is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Biosciences Division at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. She earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering, as well as a B.A. in technical writing, from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining UMTRI in 1996, she worked as a research engineer for TRC, Inc. at NHTSA's Vehicle Research and Test Center (VRTC). Dr. Klinich's research interests focus on protecting occupants in motor-vehicle crashes. She has experience in child-passenger-safety issues evaluation, the analysis of motor-vehicle crashes and crash databases, crash dummy design, laboratory reconstruction of real-world loading events, injury criteria development, occupant-anthropometry and posture evaluation, engineering analysis of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, and finite-element modeling. She is the lead author of several papers that have won high honors, including the Best Paper Award of the 2000 Conference for the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, the UMTRI Best Publication Award for 2002 and 2005, the Stapp Conference Student Paper Award for 2002 and 2004, and AJOG Editor's Choice Award for April 2008. Dr. Klinich is active the SAE Dummy Testing Equipment and Child Restraints committees.
Dr. Reed is a Research Associate Professor in the Biosciences Division at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) and at the university's Center for Ergonomics in Industrial and Operations Engineering. He holds a doctorate in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Reed has conducted a wide range of research projects in ergonomics and impact biomechanics, and has developed new techniques to predict the posture and position of motor-vehicle occupants. He is a member of the SAE International Human Accommodation and Design Devices and Driver Vision Standards committees, which have jurisdiction over SAE's standards for vehicle interior design practices. His safety-related work has addressed airbag-induced injuries using laboratory experiments and computer simulations; crash dummy design and positioning procedures; and protection for child passengers. In addition to his position and work at UMTRI, he is Director of the Human Motion Simulation Laboratory in the Center for Ergonomics, where he oversees a research program dedicated to improving the digital human models used for ergonomic analysis. Dr. Reed is the author of more than 100 technical papers on anthropometry, digital human modeling, vehicle ergonomics, safety, and related design tools, and is the recipient of numerous awards from SAE, including the Isbrandt Award for best automotive safety paper of the year (1994, 2004), the Arch T. Colwell Merit Award (2003, 2006), and the Lloyd L. Withrow Distinguished Speaker Award (1997, 2004, 2007).
