What are the main safety concerns for someone seated in wheelchair while in a motor vehicle?
First, let’s think about the some of the primary injury prevention features that are used in family vehicles, i.e. cars, vans and SUVs. First, the seats are firmly anchored to the floor, and they are designed and positioned to minimize occupant contact with the vehicle interior in the event of a frontal collision, when combined with a properly located occupant restraint. More recently, the above safety system has been supplemented by rapidly deploying airbags. In this way, the design of seat, occupant restraint airbags and vehicle combine to form a safety system that in most cases will allow the occupant to safely ride-down the high impact forces that occur during many typical motor vehicle accidents. In general, given all other factors being equal, the larger the vehicle the lower the impact forces. For example, statistically it is highly unlikely that a person seated in large urban bus will experience high impact loads, simply due to the mass of the vehicle in which they are riding.
