Serious head, neck and back injuries can result from a rear-end collision. You can reduce the likelihood of a serious injury by wearing your seat belt and adjusting your seatback and headrest. If you are injured in a rear-end accident due to the negligent or careless actions of another driver, we can help. Contact a skilled car accident attorney at Schmidt Kramer at for a free consultation to discuss your legal options. Q: What is the best way to protect my head, neck and back from serious injury in a Harrisburg rear-end collision?
Head Restraint Many people do not realize that the headrest in their vehicle is actually a safety device called a head restraint. Seatback Seatbacks are adjustable in order to ensure driver comfort and safety. The seat could also be fitted with an appropriate elastomeric damper to absorb impact energy further, reducing the effect on the occupant.
Elastomeric dampers are small blocks of rubber-like material, designed to control the backwards movement of the seat, initially with softer reaction, allowing the seat to move backwards, and then with a stiffer response to slow down the seat movement and finally to stop the motion within a few centimetres.
The damper must react in the manner described above, which requires finding the optimum geometry combined with the right material combination. Currently, work is underway for developing elastomeric dampers to control the rearward motion of the seat and absorb impact energy. A prototype of this integrated concept will be built for sled testing to verify the design. But we are optimistic that this will give car manufacturers an effective and economic way of reducing whiplash in rear-end collisions.
Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Thatcham , Author provided. Memis Acar , Loughborough University. While front-seat head restraints have gotten a lot better, rear-seat restraints often get short shrift. We measure the height of the head restraints in all the cars we test and make sure they can stay fixed at least More vehicles are being made with effective, adjustable head restraints in all rear positions.
But some, especially tall fixed restraints, create another problem, making it difficult for the driver to see out the rear windows. To redress that, some restraints can retract into a recess in the seatback or can fold out of the way when the rear seat is unoccupied. We prefer the type that folds forward or protrudes into the seating area, because they force rear passengers to deploy them before they can get comfortable.
Volvos and Mercedes-Benz vehicle have those types. To work well, the top of the restraint should reach at least as high as the top of your ears, and preferably the top of your head, and be relatively close—4 inches or less—to the back of your head.
Adjustable restraints are the most common type. They can be raised or lowered to the proper height, and many can be tilted toward or away from the head. While the federal government upgraded its head restraint rule in , with the phase-in complete for the model year, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, believes the new rule still falls short. The top of a head restraint should reach as high as the top of your head if it will adjust that far, or at least as far as the top of your ears, and be set back no more than 4 inches from your head, as shown to the right.
The four images below illustrate a typical impact. Check with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety www. The top of it should reach at least as high as the top of your ears and as close as possible to the back of your head.
Leave plenty of room. If you see a crash coming—or hear the squeal of tires behind you—and have time to react, lean back so that your head is touching the head restraint and look straight ahead. This will minimize any whiplash effect.
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