INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS
£ An Aug. 8 crash test showed how unrestrained and improperly seated students could be when thrown violently from the compartmentalized area during a head-on crash.
SMASHING RESULTS
IMMI’S SCHOOL BUS CRASH TEST AIMS TO SHOW SAFETY, EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS HOW LAP-SHOULDER RESTRAINTS INCREASE STUDENT PROTECTION WRITTEN BY CHERYL WOLF AND RYAN GRAY
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MMI, the manufacturer of SafeGuard bench seats and occupant restraint systems for school buses, in August demonstrated just what can happen
to both restrained and unrestrained students during a head-on crash. Te company’s Center for Advanced
Product Evaluation, or CAPE, hosted near- ly 100 school bus, education and child safety professionals as well as political leaders on Aug. 8 to watch the crash test of a 1998 Carpenter, 68-passenger conventional bus traveling at 25 mph into a concrete wall, the largest such barrier block in the world. Te impact crumpled the front end of the
bus, rendering the service door inoperable with broken glass and twisted steel, and separated the chassis from the bus body by 16 inches. Every row of audience members said they felt the crash force. Te dramatic event followed an NTSB
report weeks earlier concluding that seat belts are effective protection in severe side impact crashes and rollovers. Charles Vits, the marketing development
manager for IMMI’s bus division, said the 25 mph test crash, “although not (at) a signif- icant speed,” was representative of average
bus speeds driven through most communities during home-to-school transportation routes. Test engineers placed 13 anthropomor-
phic test devices (ATDs), or crash dummies, representing students ranging in age from elementary through high school, in various seating positions around the bus. Five ATDs were restrained in three-point, lap-shoulder seat belts, while one was in the company’s SafeGuard integrated child seat and another in the SafeGuard STAR seat. Te other six ATDs were unrestrained. Following the test, the audience viewed video taken on board the bus to see the full extent of how crash forces affected the various dummies. One of the ATDs was placed on a seat
on its knees and facing backward. Te video showed the severe whiplash that would have been caused upon impact to a real, live student. Drs. Marilyn Bull and Joe O’Neil, both child-passenger safety experts from Ri- ley Children’s Hospital in nearby Indianap- olis, commented that the crash would have surely caused a broken neck and/or a severe spinal injury in that particular student. Another unrestrained ATD seated in the
next row was sitting sideways with feet in the aisle. Upon impact, the ATD was projected
20 School Transportation News October 2013
sideways into the seat back in front of it. Te awkward rotation of the body as it rode down the crash forces made it very apparent that a significant injury would have resulted. Two other unrestrained ATDs fared bet-
ter. Tey were facing forward and complete- ly within the seat compartment. However, the one sitting nearest to the aisle seat fell out of the compartment, while the re- strained ATDs stayed in place in their seat. Te ATDs are instrumented to indicate potential head, neck, chest and femur inju- ries. While the data remained proprietary to IMMI, significant injuries would have also occurred in other unrestrained students who were seated properly and facing for- ward because they were thrown from their seats, thereby limiting the effectiveness of compartmentalization. As the video showed, a crash at these speeds can still cause signifi- cant injury, or even death. “Parents need to see this, and we need to
do more to make our children safe on school buses,” commented Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana, who watched the demonstration. In addition to injuries that restraints can minimize, IMMI CEO Larry Gray told the gathered representatives from the NTSB,
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