30.9.2016   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 265/1

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2.1.

Child restraint system (‘restraint’) means an arrangement of components which may comprise the combination of straps or flexible components with a securing buckle, adjusting devices, attachments and in some cases a supplementary device as a carrycot, infant carrier, a supplementary chair and/or an impact shield, capable of being anchored to a power-driven vehicle. It is so designed as to diminish the risk of injury to the wearer, in the event of a collision or of abrupt deceleration of the vehicle, by limiting the mobility of the wearer's body.

‘ISOFIX’ is a system for the connection of child restraint systems to vehicles which has two vehicle rigid anchorages, two corresponding rigid attachments on the child restraint system and a mean to limit the pitch rotation of the child restraint system.

2.1.1.   Child restraints fall into five ‘mass groups’:

2.1.2.   Child restraints fall into four ‘categories’:

2.1.3.   The retention system of child restraint systems may be of two classes:

2.1.3.1.   ‘Partial restraint’ means a device, such as a booster cushion, which, when used in conjunction with an adult seat belt, which passes around the body of the child or restrains the device in which the child is placed, forms a complete child restraint system.

2.1.3.2.   ‘Booster cushion’ means a firm cushion, which can be used with an adult seat belt.

2.2.

‘Child-safety chair’ means a child restraint incorporating a chair in which the child is held.

2.3.

‘Belt’ means a child restraint comprising a combination of straps with a securing buckle, adjusting devices and attachments.

2.4.

‘Chair’ means a structure which is a constituent part of the child restraint and is intended to accommodate a child in a seated position.

2.4.1.   ‘Carrycot’ means a restraint system intended to accommodate and restrain the child in a supine or prone position with the child's spine perpendicular to the median longitudinal plane of the vehicle. It is so designed as to distribute the restraining forces over the child's head and body excluding its limbs in the event of a collision.

2.4.2.   ‘Carrycot restraint’ means a device used to restrain a carrycot to the structure of the vehicle.

2.4.3.   ‘Infant carrier’ means a restraint system intended to accommodate the child in a rearward-facing semi-recumbent position. It is so designed as to distribute the restraining forces over the child's head and body excluding its limbs in the event of the frontal collision.

2.5.

‘Chair support’ means that part of a child restraint by which the chair can be raised.

2.6.

‘Child support’ means that part of a child restraint by which the child can be raised within the child restraint.

2.7.

‘Impact shield’ means a device secured in front of the child and designed to distribute the restraining forces over the greater part of the height of the child's body in the event of a frontal impact.

With reference to paragraph 2.1.3, these are divided in two classes:

2.8.

‘Strap’ means a flexible component designed to transmit forces.

2.8.1.   ‘Lap strap’ means a strap which, either in the form of a complete belt or in the form of a component of such a belt, passes across the front of, and restrains, directly or not, the child's pelvis.

2.8.2.   ‘Shoulder restraint’ means that part of a belt which restrains the child's upper torso.

2.8.3.   ‘Crotch strap’ means a strap (or divided straps, where two or more pieces of webbing make it) attached to the child restraint and the lap strap and is so positioned as to pass between the child's thighs; it is designed to prevent the child sliding under the lap belt in normal use and prevent the lap belt moving up off the pelvis in an impact.

2.8.4.   ‘Child-restraining strap’ means a strap which is a constituent part of the belt and restrains only the body of the child.

2.8.5.   ‘Child-restraint attachment strap’ means a strap which attaches the child restraint to the structure of the vehicle and may be a part of the vehicle-seat retaining device.

2.8.6.   ‘Harness belt’ means a belt assembly comprising a lap belt, shoulder restraints and, where fitted, a crotch strap.

2.8.7.   ‘Y-shaped belt’ means a belt where the combination of straps is formed by a strap to be guided between the child's legs and a strap for each shoulder.

2.8.8.   ‘Guide strap’ means a strap which constrains the shoulder strap of the adult seat belt in a position to suit the child and where the effective position at which the shoulder strap changes direction can be adjusted by means of a device which can be moved up and down the strap to locate the wearer's shoulder, and then locked into that position. This guide strap is not meant to carry a significant part of the dynamic load.

2.9.

‘Buckle’ means a quick release device which enables the child to be held by the restraint or the restraint by the structure of the car and can be quickly opened. The buckle may incorporate the adjusting device.

2.9.1.   ‘Enclosed buckle release button’, a buckle release button such that it shall not be possible to release the buckle using a sphere having a diameter of 40 mm.

2.9.2.   ‘Non-enclosed buckle release button’, a buckle release button such that it shall be possible to release the buckle using a sphere having a diameter of 40 mm.

2.10.

‘Adjusting device’ means a device enabling the restraint or its attachments to be adjusted to the physique of the wearer, the configuration of the vehicle, or both. The adjusting device may either be part of the buckle or be a retractor or any other part of the safety belt.

2.10.1.   ‘Quick adjuster’ means an adjusting device which can be operated by one hand in one smooth movement.

2.10.2.   ‘Adjuster mounted directly on child restraint’ means an adjuster for the integral harness which is directly mounted on the child restraint, as opposed to being directly supported by the webbing that it is designed to adjust.

2.11.

‘Attachments’ means parts of the child restraint, including securing components, which enable the child restraint to be firmly secured to the vehicle structure either directly or through the vehicle seat.

2.11.1.   ‘Support leg’ means a permanent attachment to a child restraint creating a compressive load path between the child restraint and a vehicle structure in order to by-pass seat cushion effects during deceleration; a support leg may be adjustable.

2.12.

‘Energy absorber’ means a device which is designed to dissipate energy independently of or jointly with the strap and forms part of a child restraint.

2.13.

‘Retractor’ means a device designed to accommodate a part or the whole of the strap of a child restraint. The term covers the following devices:

2.14.

‘Restraint anchorages’ means these parts of the vehicle structure or seat structure to which the child-restraint attachments are secured.

2.14.1.   ‘Additional anchorage’ means a part of the vehicle structure or of the vehicle seat structure, or any other part of the vehicle, to which a child restraint is intended to be secured and which is additional to the anchorages approved under Regulation No 14. This includes the trolley floor pan as described in Annex 6 or other structural features of a the specific vehicle(s) when loaded by a support leg.

2.14.2.   ‘ISOFIX low anchorage’ means one 6 mm diameter rigid round horizontal bar, extending from vehicle or seat structure to accept and restrain an ISOFIX child restraint system with ISOFIX attachments.

2.14.3.   ‘ISOFIX anchorages system’ means a system made up of two ISOFIX low anchorages fulfilling the requirements of Regulation No 14 which is designed for attaching an ISOFIX child restraint system in conjunction with an anti-rotation device.

2.14.4.   ‘Anti-rotation device’

2.14.5.   ‘ISOFIX top tether anchorage’ means a feature fulfilling the requirements of Regulation No 14, such as a bar, located in a defined zone, designed to accept an ISOFIX top tether strap connector and transfer its restraint force to the vehicle structure.

2.15.

‘Forward-facing’ means facing in the normal direction of travel of the vehicle.

2.16.

‘Rearward-facing’ means facing in the direction opposite to the normal direction of travel of the vehicle.

2.17.

‘Inclined position’ means a special position of the chair which allows the child to recline.

2.18.

‘Lying down/supine/prone position’ means a position where at least the child's head and body excluding its limbs are on a horizontal surface when at rest in the restraint.

2.19.

‘Child-restraint type’ means child restraints which do not differ in such essential respects as:

2.20.

‘Vehicle seat’ means a structure, which may or may not be integral with the vehicle structure, complete with trim and intended to seat one adult person. In this respect:

2.21.

‘Adjustment system’ means the complete device by which the vehicle seat or its parts can be adjusted to suit the physique of the seat's adult occupant; this device may, in particular, permit:

2.22.

‘Vehicle seat anchorage’ means the system, including the affected parts of the vehicle structure, by which the adult seat as a whole is secured to the vehicle structure.

2.23.

‘Seat type’ means a category of adult seats which do not differ in such essential respects as:

2.24.

‘Displacement system’ means a device enabling the adult seat or one of its parts to be displaced angularly or longitudinally, without a fixed intermediate position, to facilitate the entry and exit of passengers and the loading and unloading of objects.

2.25.

‘Locking system’ means a device ensuring that the adult seat and its parts are maintained in the position of use.

2.26.

‘Lock-off device’ is a device which locks and prevents movement of one section of the webbing of an adult safety belt relative to another section of the webbing of the same belt. Such devices may act upon either diagonal or lap section or secure together both lap and diagonal sections of the adult belt. The term covers the following classes:

2.27.

‘Special Needs Restraint’ is a child restraint system designed for children who have special needs as a result of either a physical or mental handicap; this device may in particular permit additional restraining devices for any part of the child, but it shall contain as a minimum a primary means of restraint which complies with the requirements of this Regulation.

2.28.

‘ISOFIX attachment’ means one of the two connections, fulfilling the requirement of paragraph 6.3.2 of this Regulation, extending from the ISOFIX child restraint system structure, and compatible with an ISOFIX low anchorage.

2.29.

‘ISOFIX child restraint system’ means a child restraint system which has to be attached to an ISOFIX anchorage system fulfilling the requirement of Regulation No 14.

2.30.

‘Seat bight’ means the area close to the intersection of the surfaces of the vehicle seat cushion and the seat back.

2.31.

‘Vehicle seat fixture (VSF)’ means a fixture, according to ISOFIX size classes defined in paragraph 2.1.1.6 and whose dimension are given in Figures 1 to 6 of Annex 17, Appendix 2 to Regulation No 16, used by a child restraint manufacturer to determine the appropriate dimensions of an ISOFIX child restraint system and the location of its ISOFIX attachments.

2.32.

‘ISOFIX top tether connector’ means a device intended to be attached to an ISOFIX top tether anchorage.

2.33.

‘ISOFIX top tether hook’ means an ISOFIX top tether connector typically used to attach an ISOFIX top tether strap to an ISOFIX top tether anchorage as defined in Figure 3 of Regulation No 14.

2.34.

‘ISOFIX top tether strap’ means a webbing strap (or equivalent) which extends from the top of an ISOFIX child restraint system to the ISOFIX top tether anchorage, and which is equipped with an adjustment device, a tension-relieving device, and an ISOFIX top tether connector.

2.35.

‘ISOFIX top tether attachment’ is a device to secure the ISOFIX top tether strap to the ISOFIX child restraint system.

2.36.

‘A tension relieving device’ means a system which allows to release the device which adjusts and maintains the tension in the ISOFIX top tether strap.

2.37.

‘Adult safety belt webbing guide’ means a device through which the adult belt passes for its correct routing, that allows free webbing movement.

2.38.

‘Type approval test’, means a test to determine the extent to which a child restraint system type submitted for approval is capable of satisfying the requirements.

2.39.

‘Production qualification test’, means a test to determine whether the manufacturer is able to produce a child restraint system in conformity with the child restraint systems submitted for type approval.

2.40.

‘Routine testing’, means the testing of a number of restraint systems selected from a single batch to verify the extent to which they satisfy the requirements.

2.41.

‘Child Restraint System Displacement system’ means a device enabling the CRS or one of its parts to be displaced angularly or longitudinally.

2.42.

‘Child Restraint System Locking system’ means a device ensuring that the CRS and its parts are maintained in the position of use.

2.43.

‘Load limiting device’ means a device that can break or jam under specified loading conditions. The device shall be explicitly designed for these conditions and its behaviour shall be reproducible and objectively documented in the technical documentation.

3.2.1.

A technical description of the child restraint, specifying the straps and other materials used together with the predicted and reproducible behaviour of load limiting devices. It shall be accompanied by drawings of the parts making up the child restraint and in the case of retractors, installation instructions for these retractors and their sensing devices, declaration on toxicity (paragraph 6.1.5) and flammability (paragraph 6.1.6), the drawings shall show the position intended for the approval number and additional symbol(s) in relation to the circle of the approval mark. The description shall mention the colour of the model submitted for approval;

3.2.2.

Four samples of the child restraint;

3.2.3.

A 10-metre length of each category of strap used in the child restraint; and

3.2.4.

Additional samples shall be supplied at the request of the Technical Service responsible for conducting the test;

3.2.5.

Instructions and details of packaging in accordance with paragraph 15 below;

3.2.6.

In case of carrycots, if the carrycot restraint may be used in combination with a number of types of carrycots, the restraint manufacturer shall supply a list of the latter.