Articles

Whiplash protection

Protection efforts are hampered by lack of knowledge about the causes of whiplash injuries. The focus of preventive measures to date has been on the design of car seats, primarily through the introduction of headrests. So far the injury reducing effects of head restraints has been relatively low, approximately 5-10%, because car seats have become stiffer in order to increase crash-worthiness of cars in high-speed rear-end collisions which in turn increases the risk of whiplash injury in low-speed rear impact collisions. Improvements in the geometry of car seats through better design and energy absorption could offer additional benefits. Active devices move the body in a crash in order to shift the loads on the car seat.[1]

Some car manufacturers have begun to implement various whiplash protection devices in their products in order to reduce the risk for and severity of injury, such as

• Mercedes-Benz A-Class Active Head Restraint
• Ford, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot and Saab - Active Head restraint 
• Volvo and Jaguar - Whiplash Protection System/Whiplash Prevention System, and Toyota
• Whiplash Injury Lessening

Whether or not such devices offer any substantial benefit over vehicles without them remains controversial. In a test undertaken by the Swedish National Road Administration and an insurance company (Folksam), one test showed that a whiplash protection device was no guarantee against injury and that the degree of protection varies between vehicles both with and without whiplash protection devices.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Whiplash protection.