Whiplash prevention - a look at ways of reducing whiplash injuries

Thousands of people go through the pain, discomfort and hassle of a whiplash injury every year in the UK, yet many could have avoided the suffering if they had just made a few changes to their headrest.

Headrests, or head restraints as they’re more properly called, are fitted as standard in all cars with the express aim of preventing whiplash. They are designed to stop the hyperextension action (see ‘What is Whiplash?’) that causes such damage to the soft tissue of the neck, but the majority of drivers fail to position their headrest correctly and so gain no benefit from it.

Correct use of a head restraint

Recent studies have found that only 36% of drivers bother to adjust their head restraints, and of these, just 30% do it correctly. Passengers also fail to protect themselves properly with only a miserly 23% even attempting to adjust the headrest to a suitable position. As a result there are millions of people every day using Britain’s roads who are exposing themselves to the risk of a whiplash injury.

So what is the correct way to adjust your head restraint? According to the latest safety guides, it should be as close as possible to the back of the head, while the top should be level with somewhere between the top of your ears and the top of your head. If it is positioned in this way it has the best chance of preventing the backwards movement of the head that contributes to the whiplash.

Dynamic head restraints

The head weighs about the same as a bowling ball so it really is best to restrict rapid movement as much as possible. Car manufacturers have traditionally paid little attention to the potential for whiplash injuries when they’ve been designing their vehicles, but in recent years the issue has received far more consideration and dynamic head restraint systems have been designed and were first seen on road cars in 1997.

Dynamic head restraints are those that actively deploy in the event of a car accident in an attempt to prevent injury, similar to the way in which an airbag automatically activates itself. At the forefront of pioneering their use have been Saab and Volvo, manufacturers who are renowned for paying particular attention to the safety of their customers. The two companies use differing systems in their vehicles, and both have proved to significantly decrease whiplash injuries.

Saab

Saab (www.saab.co.uk) use a system called the Saab Active Head Restraint System, which is more commonly known as SAHR. It features a padded head restraint that is attached to a pressure plate within the back of the seat. When the force of an impact causes the body to put excessive pressure on the plate, the head restraint automatically moves up and forward, enabling it to catch the head before the whiplash-causing hyperextension occurs.

SAHR also consists of crossbars and padding within the seatback which is intended to absorb the huge energy created by the crash and cradle the torso, thus decreasing the differential movement between the body and the head.

Volvo

Volvo’s (www.volvo.co.uk) answer to the problem of whiplash is the Whiplash Injury Prevention System (WHIPS) and is different to Saab’s, although equally effective. The Swedish manufacturer favours an all-in-one seat and head restraint that cannot be adjusted, but, thanks to a hinge at the base of the seatback, moves with the body in the event of a collision. This is intended to reduce the forward motion of the torso and works in conjunction with the fixed headrest to minimise the risk of whiplash.

Other manufacturers are slowly but surely beginning to see the need for proper whiplash protection systems, and Porsche and Toyota, among others, now install dynamic head restraints in their cars. Many producers of cars widely used by the British public still do not include such systems as standard, however, and so drivers every day continue to suffer from whiplash as a result.

Making a whiplash compensation claim

What’s more, we work on a no win, no fee basis and won’t ask you to pay anything for our services. We protect you from all costs and even allow you to keep 100% of any compensation that you win.