Transportation Expertise

Older Child Occupant Protection

Surveys designed to measure adult safety belt use typically only focus on occupants traveling in the front-outboard seating positions of vehicles. These surveys are also usually conducted at randomly selected roadway intersections. Because most children ride in the back seat of vehicles, and have different travel patterns than adults traveling alone, these surveys often miss this important demographic. Researchers at UMTRI have developed specialized surveys to specifically target these older child passengers and determine their occupant protection use rate.