Volvo's Car Child Care

The Swedish car manufacturer Volvo has alwaysgeometry which does not rely on the child's hips to
been known for prioritizing the safety of theirsupport it.
consumers. As stated by the founders of theNot only babies should be protected carefully, unborn
company, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larson, "Carsones should be taken cared of too while a pregnant
are driven by people. The guiding principle behindwoman is in a vehicle. To develop safety features for
everything we make at Volvo therefore, is - and mustpregnant women, Volvo uses pregnant crash dummies
remain - safety."to study the effects of a crash in a pregnant woman.
The company has been researching and developingTo date, only Volvo has engineered a pregnant crash
safety features for their vehicles for forty years now.test dummy in the industry.
During that span of time, Volvo has come up withThe pregnant crash dummy is named Linda by Volvo.
breakthrough systems which increase the protectionLinda is used to determine how a pregnant mother and
that their vehicles offer to their consumers.the child inside the womb would react to various
According to the company, taking care of childrencollisions. Aside from the physical attributes of a
inside cars is of utmost concern for them. Smallpregnant woman, Linda is also loaded with information
children need special restraints which are specificallyabout the uterus, placenta, amniotic fluid and the fetus.
designed for their asize. According to the company,This helps safety engineers to study how a child inside
the needs of babies in terms of car safety are verya womb reacts to violent motions as a result of car
different from that of grownups.crashes. The virtual pregnant Linda can be positioned in
A grownup's head accounts for about six percent ofany way inside a car and the speed at which a car
the total eight of the person. In comparison, babies'crashes can also be set by researchers.
head comprises about one half of their total weight.With Linda, Volvo found out that pregnant women and
This hefty head is the weakest point of a baby. Thattheir unborn child can e protected well by a front
is why it is of utmost importance that a baby shouldairbag. Volvo also found out that using a seat belt
be harnessed to a child seat which adequatelydoes no harm to an unborn baby. The company
protects its head and other developing body parts.encourages pregnant women to always wear
Another concern is the developing pelvis of a child.seatbelts to adequately protect their unborn babies.
This portion of the body cannot adequately anchor aWith the advancements made by Volvo, they have
seat belt in its proper position as easily as a grownup'sbecome a leader in car safety. Their Volvo
hips can. To ensure that the child will be safe in thethermostat-equipped vehicles are known to be some
unfortunate case of crash, booster seats should beof the safest in the world. With their accomplishments,
provided for them. Booster seats are designed to fit aVolvo is keen to develop more safety features to
child's body snugly. It also has specialized beltreduce fatalities caused by traffic accidents.