Payouts for whiplash and concern over city car whiplash protection ratings

The fact that car accident compensation payouts for whiplash total some £1.5 billion a year in the UK alone should be enough to make vehicle manufacturers vigilant in ensuring their cars offer significant whiplash protection to both drivers and passengers.

Yet, according to road safety testing group THATCHAM, it seems that neither the whiplash injury risk itself nor the scale of payouts for whiplash have been enough for the manufacturers of the latest models of city cars to up their games and offer a high level of protection.

THATCHAM's 2008 whiplash head restraint ratings concluded that 11 small or so-called city cars fail to live up to expected standards. Not a single car achieved the "Good" rating, which is defined as "offering good protection for most sizes of occupant", while only two earned an "Acceptable" rating, meaning that most of the cars tested received a dubious "Marginal" rating. Two cars, the Ford Ka and Fiat Panda were ranked as "Poor", meaning that they are considered to "offer little protection from whiplash".

The scores of city cars contrasted sharply with those of vehicles in other categories, where around 75 percent of all vehicles earned "Good" or "Acceptable" scores. Many commentators have expressed worries that with environmental issues now at the forefront of motorists concerns, manufacturers have failed to respond by offering a high level of protection in smaller, greener cars.

Matthew Avery, THATCHAM's research manager commented on the low scores, "City cars are not equipped to protect their occupants' necks when they have to absorb the crash energy from larger, heavier vehicles. Combined with poor seat design, this makes whiplash far more likely."

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Whiplash, while not necessarily being the kind of injury that shows up in an X-ray, can be painful and debilitating.

This is reflected in the fact that, in the last financial year, the average compensation payout for whiplash was £3,500.

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