New Car Safety Technology to Protect Your Child

Protecting children in case of an accident is one of the biggest concerns in today’s safety feature development. Therefore, Dorel Juvenile Group has recently launched a new car seat safety technology, the Air Protect, designed to protect children in side impact collision, based on a layer of air protection around the child’s head.

This technology came after an NHTSA study showed that side impact crashes have dramatically increased over the past two decades and are today the deadliest kind of crashes for children. Moreover, most of the fatalities are due to head trauma.

The method used in testing the Air Protect system used an intruding door technique in order to simulate a side impact crash with more accuracy than when a fixed door is used.

Over the past two years, Dorel's team of car seat engineers have studied side impact crashes along with the researchers at Kettering University.

At the end of this period of time, the Air Protect technology was born, which through a precise release of air, it compresses and shields children from side impact intrusion and immediately reduces crash forces where the child is most vulnerable – the head.

According to the manufacturer, Air Protect is extending ride-down, the amount of time it takes to slow a child's movement in a crash. By extending ride-down time, Air Protect creates a slower, softer landing.

"The technology is so revolutionary that we will be rolling it out globally – incorporating it in Dorel car seats in Europe and Australia, in addition to North America," said Hani Basile, Global Dorel Juvenile Group President and Chief Executive Officer.

The Air Protect is being offered in the new Safety 1st Complete Air car seat, available in black/gray and brown/orange. The Safety 1st's Complete Air car seat is available for pre-order at Babies"R"Us stores and online at Babiesrus.com and Babiesrus.ca.

In August, Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us stores will offer the Complete Air car seat with Air Protect, followed by other retailers later in the year.