SPECIAL REPORT
Make Way for New and Revised Wheelchair Standards 18, 19 and 20
By Michelle Fisher When it comes to safety, there is always room for improvement
— and no one knows that better than student transporters. Dr. Larry Schneider, chair of the RESNA Committee on and Transportation,
Wheelchairs said that new wheelchair
standards 18, 19 and 20 published this month would improve on and extend the original WC19, first adopted in 2002 to design, test and label wheelchairs used as seats in vehicles. Tese voluntary standards provide guidelines for the safe transport of students with limited mobility who sit in wheelchairs aboard the school bus. “All standards should be reviewed and upgraded every five
years,” said Schneider, who is chair of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety and head of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). “Some of the things we’re changing are based on our experience with the current criteria and test methods.” Previously, WC19 specified crash-testing with a wheelchair-
anchored pelvic belt. Te new WC20 guideline now recommends using a vehicle-anchored pelvic belt for the test and extends WC19 by allowing independent testing of a seating system using a surrogate wheelchair base. Te WC19 update addresses wheelchairs for children who weigh
less than 50 pounds and changes the test for properly positioning restraints with vehicle-anchored pelvic belts — switching from poor-to-excellent scores to a strictly pass/fail criteria. It also includes a provision for keeping zones near the paths of pelvic belts free of sharp edges and emphasizes the requirement to provide pin-bushing anchorages for attaching the lower end of the shoulder belt on both halves of the pelvic belt. WC18 concerns lap-shoulder belts that have vehicle-anchored
pelvic belts and how users should disconnect the diagonal shoulder portion from the pelvic portion by using the standard connector-to-pin-bushing anchorage. Industry professionals like Sue Shutrump, supervisor of
occupational and physical therapy for Trumbull County (Ohio) Educational Service Center, applaud the revised standards for focusing on occupant restraint. “Although it’s difficult at times to tie down the wheelchair, it’s
more difficult to get the lap-shoulder belt in the right position on the child — to keep a lap belt down on the pelvis so it’s really riding over bone,” Shutrump said. “Another thing they’re doing is testing wheelchairs for smaller passengers, designing them with harness systems that are attached to the chair.” Schneider added, “We’ve learned that the seatbelt
accommodation is much more important. In the real world, we’ve seen wheelchair passengers severely injured because of the lack of use or proper positioning of belts, even in minor crashes.”
28 School Transportation News Magazine January 2012
Photo courtesy of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
EFFICACY DEPENDS ON AWARENESS, TRAINING Shutrump also welcomes the WC19 revision on crash-testing
customized seating systems since therapists sometimes piece together wheelchairs to fit students’ special needs. “As therapists, we need to purchase a bigger wheelchair base
and a seating system that can be customized to meet the child’s growth. Because the wheelchair’s base is big, we can just grow the wheelchair,” she said, noting that typical funding supports replacing equipment every five years. “We want for these children to have crashworthy models. It’s even more important for them because, chances are, they can’t transfer out of there.” WC19’s new crash-test criteria also require a rating for ease of
properly positioning the lap-shoulder belt and another rating for how well proper belt fit is maintained. “Wheelchairs need to be designed so they properly and
easily accommodate the use of seat belts,” added Schneider. “And drivers need to be trained on use of the vehicle-anchored
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