2025-2026

Child Injury Trends in Recent Motor Vehicle Crashes in the USA: A Comparative Analysis of Rural vs. Urban Cases

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

Research suggests a higher fatality risk for children in rural areas compared to urban settings, yet current studies lack an updated, comparative analysis of pediatric injury trends. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing motor vehicle crash injury patterns in a predominantly rural region, with a focus on the children’s hospital catchment area, and comparing them with national trends.

Current Child Seat Portability Challenges: The Effect of Different Child Seat Geometries and a Pretensioner Belt on Child Occupant Crash Dynamics

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

This project leverages the Consumer Reports survey of caregivers to gather insights on currently used portable child restraint systems (CRS). The most commonly used models will be identified and tested to examine child motion during frontal impacts and compared to traditional CRS such as a high-back booster.

2024-2025

Characterizing BPB-seated Children Kinematics in Lateral-oblique Impacts With and Without the Lower Anchor

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

Lower anchors in belt-positioning-boosters (BPBs) have been previously evaluated only in frontal impacts. As many caregivers use BPBs without the lower anchors connected, potentially during travel with a child, it’s important to understand how the lower anchor connection may influence the child’s kinematics and kinetics across different impact angles.

2022-2023

Understanding Small Occupant Kinematic Response in Reclined Seats in Lateral Oblique Impacts by Testing the Large Omnidirectional Child (LODC) Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD)

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

Utilizing the Large Omnidirectional Child (LODC) anthropomorphic test device (ATD), this study evaluates the injury and submarining risk of reclined children in lateral oblique vehicle crashes, with and without a booster seat.

2021-2022

Motion of Reclined Booster-Seated Children During Sled-Simulated Lateral Oblique Pre-Crash Scenarios

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

This project aims to quantify kinematics, muscle activity, and seat belt loads of booster-seated child volunteers on a reclined vehicle seat across multiple seatback angles during a lateral oblique sled-simulated pre-crash maneuver. A second aim is to examine the difference between types of booster seats on children’s motion during a lateral oblique sled-simulated pre-crash maneuver.

2020-2021

Understanding Reclined Small Occupants’ Kinematics in Frontal Crashes by Testing the LODC

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

This project aims to characterize kinematics and kinetics of the LODC when the seatback of a production vehicle seat is reclined during sled-simulated frontal vehicle crashes. A secondary aim of this project is to understand the influence of the booster seat on kinematics and kinetics of the LODC during sled-simulated frontal vehicle crashes.

Head Contacts in Rear-seated Pediatric Occupants When the Front Seat is Reclined in AEB Scenarios

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

This project aims to identify the likelihood and characteristics of head contact of a child seated behind a reclined front occupant in an autonomous driving seating configuration. Different combinations of front seat recline and track positions for the front occupant will be considered. The research team will investigate how the presence, type, and dimensions of a booster seat influence head contact by a rear-seated child occupant during an automatic…

2019-2020

Characteristics of Crashes Represented by the FMVSS 213 Crash Pulse

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

The goal of the proposed study is to understand the functional relationship between the kinematics and kinetics of the ATD, the acceleration of the vehicle/sled, and the resulting injury criteria and CRS structural performance.

Quantitative Characterization of AEB Pulses Across the Modern Fleet: Insights on the Relationship Between AEB Pulse Characteristics and Occupant Safety

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

The goal of the proposed study is to compare and characterize automatic emergency braking (AEB) pulses of different vehicles currently on the road in order to understand the type of loading environment to which vehicle occupants are being exposed and if there will be the need to have more specific common standards for AEB features.

2018-2019

Can the Startle Reflex be Manipulated to Reduce Take-over Time in Pre-crash Scenarios for Autonomous Driving?

Principal Investigator: Valentina Graci, PhD

This project examines if take-over reaction time to reach and turn the steering wheel during a simulated vehicle swerving is decreased by an acoustic startling pre-stimulus, i.e., a loud sound preceding the swerving event. Using a lateral oscillating sled device, two populations (adults vs. teens) will be studied and the role of driver awareness will be quantified by examining scenarios when the driver is ready to react and when the driver is involved…