Misuse mode and effects analysis--an approach to predict and quantify misuse of child restraint systems

It is known that misuse of Child Restraint Systems (CRS) is widespread and must be considered as a major threat to the safety of children. In this paper a quantitative method of predicting and assessing misuse of CRS is proposed. The process, called "Misuse Mode and Effects Analysis (MMEA)" assesses the likelihood of occurrence of potential misuse modes and their effect on safety before and after corrective actions. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated in the assessment of a number of commonly used CRS.