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A series of 16 sled impact tests was conducted at the Highway Safety Research Institute sled facility to evaluate the effectiveness of restraint devices and systems currently being used to transport school-bus and wheelchair-seated handicapped children. A sled impact pulse of 20 m.p.h. and 16 G's was used for all tests. Eight tests involved wheelchairs in forward-facing and side-facing orientations for head-on and 33-degree oblique impacts. Another eight tests involved forward-facing bus seats for head-on and 33-degree oblique impacts. The results generally point out the ineffectiveness of many currently used devices and systems for protecting the child in a bus collision. In six of the eight bus seat tests the dummy's head struck the back of the bus seat in front. This was primarily because of a lack of upper-torso restraint.

Over the last decade large safety improvements have been made in crash protection for stock car racing drivers. It has been well established that in side and rear impacts the driver seat provides the primary source for occupant retention and restraint. With the implementation of NASCAR®'s (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc) newest generation of stock car, the Car of Tomorrow (COT), into the racing schedule, the opportunity to develop and implement a universal stock car driver seat performance specification was accomplished. This paper describes the development of the Seat Performance Specification including the goals of the specification, the methodology used to develop it, a census of the existing driver seat population used in on-track competition, review of developmental dynamic specification sled tests and quasi-static tests as well as summation of the Seat Performance Specification requirements.