Cutting whiplash injury rates

Up until very recently, whiplash injuries were dismissed out of hand as being a figment of sufferers' imaginations. After all, how could a low speed car accident say at just 5 or 10mph cause such pain and discomfort without even leaving a mark to show for it? As a result, people who sustained this kind of neck injury were left in a great deal of pain and were treated with very little sympathy mostly being unkindly branded "malingerers".

Fortunately for those who have suffered a whiplash injury, attitudes are changing in the medical profession. Extensive research means that whiplash is a much more well-recognised condition and most medical practitioners will take sufferers seriously, though there is still a hard-core of people who continue to doubt the validity of it. The overwhelming scientific support for whiplash is such that thousands of people make successful whiplash compensation claims against other motorists each year.

It is thought that in excess of 250,000 people in the UK alone sustain whiplash injuries each year in car accidents. As such, it is the most commonly sustained car crash injury. The rear-end collision is the most common scenario, but it has also often been observed as occurring as a result of head-on and side-on road accidents. However, it is hoped that these figures might fall dramatically in the coming years.

This is because just as doctors and other medical practitioners are starting to come around to the idea that whiplash injuries really do exist, so are car manufacturers. For many years, most car makers did not make any adjustments to their seat design that would help prevent whiplash injuries because there was little medical backing for the condition. The recent shift in attitude, however, has brought about massive change in the way car manufacturers design their seats.

Research conducted by safety organisation Thatcham from 2005 rated car seats as "good", "acceptable", "marginal" or "poor" at preventing whiplash injuries. Just 16% fell into the top category, whilst a massive 36% were found to be poor at protecting occupants from sustaining whiplash.

A couple of years on, in 2007, and there has been a dramatic turnaround in the results. Now, the greatest number of seats (29%) are rated as being "good", whilst the fewest (20%) are poor at whiplash prevention. There are high hopes for this trend to continue, as many of the seats recently rated as "poor" are on older models and are due for redesign.

The manufacturers which Thatcham credit with having the most effective anti-whiplash seats are Saab and Volvo, which have historically both put a great deal of time and effort into safety features in their vehicles. The ground-breaking Saab Active Head Restraint System and Volvo's Whiplash Protection System were the results, and have undoubtedly saved many people from the pain of a whiplash injury since they were brought in.

However, as can be seen from Thatcham's results, more manufacturers are joining Volvo and Saab up there at the top. Ford, Renault and Audi are three such manufacturers, and the steps they have taken should mean that thousands of British drivers will be better protected from whiplash injuries in the event of a car accident.

It is unlikely that these seats will remove the chance of whiplash occurring altogether because unfortunately, many motorists fail to adjust their headrests properly. In most of the specially-designed seats, the headrest is a critical part of the whiplash prevention system, and if it is not adjusted to the person's height correctly, the effectiveness of the system drops dramatically.

A campaign called "Save Your Neck" was launched in 2003 to raise awareness of the correct positioning of head restraints in order to prevent whiplash injuries. Motorists were told to raise the height of their head restraint to match the top of their head, and move the head restraint as close as possible to the back of their head. Unfortunately, it seems that this advice went straight over the top of many drivers' heads and around 70% still fail to put their head restraint in the correct position.

As a result, it is likely that a high number of motorists are going to continue to suffer whiplash injuries, despite the manufacturers' efforts. It is going to take the cooperation of both motorists and manufacturers to reach a situation where whiplash injuries become a much less common result of a car accident.

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