EPOCH · Enabling protection for older children

Across most of Europe, children under 3 years must use an appropriate child restraint in any vehicle. If seat belts are fitted, the law now also requires children up to the age of 12 years or up to 150 cm in height to use an appropriate child restraint. Child restraints sold in the EU must conform to UNECE Regulation 44. To date, the regulations in this field have relied on the P series child dummies as restraint loading devices. The CREST and CHILD projects worked on the development of the “Q” series dummies. The NPACS programme specifies the use of the Q dummies and is unable to provide an assessment for children over the age of 6 years as there is currently no appropriate 10/12 year dummy. The Q series could be considered for Regulatory testing if the family included a 10/12 year old dummy. The EPOCh project aims to develop a prototype 10/12 year old dummy. The project will extend the NPACS testing and rating protocols to include child restraints for older children and will make proposals for the assessment of child restraints in ECE Regulation 44 if the Q series replace the P series in the future.