Road trauma is a leading cause of death and disabling injury for children. We are studying how these injuries occur, and how changes to the types and design of restraints used by children can reduce serious injuries and death. Key problems include whether children use restraints correctly and whether they use restraints that are appropriate for their size.
Common causes
- Many injuries to children in car crashes are preventable by using a restraint that is the right size for the child, and using the restraint correctly
- Children are not big enough to fit properly into adult car seats and belts until about 11 years of age
- We can use magnetic resonance imaging techniques to measure the stiffness of the brain and muscles, and monitor changes in these due to diseases
- Differences in spinal cord injury between adults and children may be related to differences in the stiffness of their spinal column and responses to forces that occur during injury
- Motion of the muscles around the upper airway are very different for sleep apnoea patients compared to normal subjects
