Whiplash injuries resulting from rear end crashes are very common. In Sweden, a disability resulting from a whiplash injury is the most common disabling injury in modern cars. Therefore, prevention directed towards this kind of injury is very important for the road user. During the 70s, conventional headrests were introduced. The protective effects of these devices have been found to be small, 5-10%. More advanced systems were introduced on a few car models in the late 90s. The main feature of these systems is that the geometry of the headrest and/or the seat back is modified during the impact, thus reducing the risk of a whiplash type motion of the head. A study from Folksam and the Swedish Road Administration (SRA) shows, that the recently introduced whiplash protective systems, by Volvo and Saab, reduce the risk of long term disability whiplash injury by 40%. In the study, more or less identical cars with and without whiplash protective systems were compared. As both Volvo and Saab cars without whiplash protective systems, were generally better than the rest of the car fleet, the effect of new systems if all cars had whiplash protective systems, could be a 50% reduction of disabling injuries. (Author/publisher)
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