The seat for children is based on the same technology used to keep soldiers in military vehicles safe.
The Israeli company BabyArk announced Tuesday it has been awarded a €2.5 million grant from the European Union to develop “the safest car seat ever created” for children.
BabyArk knows about safety – the company was started by Shy Mindel who is also the head of business operations at Mobius Protection Systems, an Israeli company that manufactures blast-protected seating systems for military vehicles.
The “smart” car seats will be produced based on breakthrough multiple-patented technology developed by Mobius with the goal of reducing the injuries that happen to the 1.3 million children who are involved in motor vehicle crashes each year. Shockingly, the company says car crashes are the leading cause of death and injury among infants where in Europe alone some 700 children are killed yearly on the roads and 80,000 are injured.
“All parents believe their children are their most precious gift but fail to realize that their kids are facing real risk while sitting in a standard car seat,” said Mindel, BabyArk’s CEO, adding that car seat technology hasn’t changed for more than a decade, “resulting in tragic life loss and economic damage.”
The company claims that the BabyArk car seat will increase safety by a factor of four compared to statutory requirements and be twice as safe as the top products currently on the market, while at the same time far superior in terms of usability.
“Our mission is to introduce the most advanced technologies and design to set a new level of safety that will reduce child mortality and injuries significantly,” Mindel said. “Potential users are already showing great interest in BabyArk’s solutions, which aim to revolutionize the traditional safety seat industry.”
Mindel says his company invested heavily in R & D to develop a spring-like energy absorption technology that converts kinetic energy to plastic deformation, meaning dangerous energy is absorbed, thus substantially reducing head trauma and severe infant injuries.
Instead of just strapping it to a seat belt, the BabyArk seat uses a special mechanism to anchor the seat to the vehicle’s frame, based on the same special safety seats developed by Mobius for armored vehicles for the most extreme wartime environments.
(United with Israel).
