Safety & Wheelchair Transport
By PN: Paraplegia News, Vol. 61, No. 2, p. 24Publication Date: February 2007
Article focuses on the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wheelchair Transportation Safety (RERC WTS), which is a partnership headed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute in conjunction with the universities of Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Colorado. The partnership was formed in 2001 to advance the safety, usability, and independence of people who use wheelchairs who remain in their chairs while traveling in motor vehicles. The partnership will conduct research and development in a number of areas, including: (1) developing solutions for forward- and rear-facing wheelchair passenger stations in large accessible transit vehicles, (2) to investigate issues of school bus transportation for children who use wheelchairs, and (3) improving frontal- and rear-crash protection for wheelchair occupants in private vehicles. The RERC WTS will disseminate information, train researchers, transfer technology concepts to manufacturers, and develop and revise voluntary industry standards. The project is funded by a 4.5 million-dollar, 5-year federal grant from the United States Department of Transportation.
Published by: PVA Publications (Website:http://www.pvamagazines.com)
Paralyzed Veterans of America (Web Site: http://www.pva.org )
