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Safety of children as car occupants raises a specific problem: it is necessary to take into account two factors which are particular to them: their very fast growth and their behavior, which corresponds to a need for movement. An analysis of statistical and accidentological data, points to the fact that whereas traffic accidents account for 25 % of adult deaths, they account for nearly 50 % of deaths for children (all kinds of road-users). Measures were adopted in France; such as the obligation for children of less than 10-years-old to travel on rear seats of cars and the definition of an homologation procedure for children restraint devices, with the aim of limiting the consequences of these accidents. The most common restraint devices look like little individual seats and are designed to protect young children (less than 3-years-old). Recently, new restraint devices, called “cushions”, were developed.

The data presented in this paper were yielded by tests performed on unembalmed human cadavers fitted with three-point seat belts and subjected to frontal collisions. The purpose is to define one or more functions predictive of thoracic injuries to cadavers whose rib “resistance” is known (i.e. BCF parameter (1)*). These functions predict the number of rib fractures and the thoracic AIS in terms of : anthropometrical data on the cadavers, data representative of the thoracic resistance of the cadavers and physical parameters arising from the deceleration pulses measured on the cadaver vertebrae during the occurrence of impact. By integrating the BCF data which characterize the ribs of the population exposed to the risk of thoracic injury, it is possible satisfactorily to define the tolerance of living road users, in terms of their age. Provided that maximum admissible injury level, and the age for which this limit is required are set, a tolerance criterion can then be defined.