Research reveals that over the years there has been a great increase in vehicles that have better head restraints. Although there has been research, rating of cars, and information put out by other groups about this issue, it seems as though the Federal Government is a step behind. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) head restraint standards are the same as first introduced in 1969, and although the NHTSA has been putting this off over and over again, they are predicting to issue a final head restraint law in March 2004. Even without the federal laws, many vehicle makers are improving head restraints, but only half of vehicles are considered to have good restraints. Although new head restraints are built better to protect victims from whiplash in car accidents, drivers and passengers aren't adjusting their restraints correctly. Research Council for Automobile Affairs (RCAR) has implemented a head restraint protocol, which is now serving as the chief discrimination when evaluating head restraints. This article includes a graph of head restraint improvements, head restraint ratings, and reviews the percent of correctly adjusted head restraints in correlation to gender, vehicle type, and restraint type.
Abstract