Principal Investigator: Matthew R. Maltese, PhD, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The research delineated injury mechanisms for children involved in side impact crashes and highlighted the differences and similarities between adult and child injury patterns. The research helped determine when adult safety system concepts can be applied to children and when they cannot. It also described the patterns and mechanisms of injuries, such as abdominal or upper extremity, or injuries to various organs experienced by belt-restrained children in side-impact crashes and compared injury patterns observed in belted children with those observed in belted adults in similar crash situations.