Whiplash claim news
31/07/2007

Head restraint law aims to improve consumer safety

Following the recent safety research into 175 vehicles, the US government has taken note and introduced new regulations to help protect drivers from having to make whiplash claims.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that only one third of front seats and head restraints were rated as good or acceptable, meaning that the vast majority were shown as not adequately supporting passengers during car accidents.

During the impact of a road accident, the position of the head restraint can be vital in supporting passengers' heads from being thrown around too violently. This acceleration/deceleration of the head during a car accident causes whiplash, a painful neck injury which can lead to years of suffering.

As a result, vehicles built after 1st September 2008 will require head restraints to be set within 2.2 inches of a front-seat passenger's head.

To date, there are no plans to introduce a law about the distance of a rear-seat passenger's head restraint. However, Consumers Union, who publish Consumer Reports, are campaigning for the government to increase the stringency of the new law to include rear-seat head restraints.

Industry specialists hope that a similar law will follow suit here in the UK as so many motorists are still failing to recognise the importance of positioning their head restraint correctly. In turn, this should see a decrease in whiplash compensation claims, which currently cost the insurance industry millions ever year.

A spokesperson for YouClaim, the whiplash claim experts, has commented, "The introduction of this new law in the US is a great start to reducing the vast numbers of people who sustain whiplash injuries each year."