Clark, Perdue & List's Blog

It may surprise you to know that a rear-end motor vehicle crash occurs very 17 seconds in this country. Yet few vehicles have the type of head restraint and seatback that could minimize or even prevent the head and neck injuries resulting from common crashes.

Because such accidents are seldom life-threatening, they are not the focus of safety advocates. But the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) reports that nearly 2 million whiplash ("whiplash" is the common term for a flexion-extension injury to the cervical spin--neck) claims are filed each year, 200,000 of which are reported to be severe enough to cause long-term medical problems. These problems include persistent pain and lack of mobility. These injuries--caused by the rapid snapping back of the head, which hyper-extends the neck and damages nerves and ligaments--can even occur at speeds as low as 10 mph.

The IIHS is the only organization that tests and rates front seats and head restraints for rear-end crash protection. Of the nearly 175 vehicles for which it provides data, only one-third have been rated "good" or "acceptable." Another third was given a "marginal" score, while the remaining third was rated "poor."

Head restraints on front seats of passenger vehicles have been mandated since 1969, but even when properly positioned, they do not always provide adequate protection. One problem is that a vehicle's seatbacks are often too stiff and cause the head and shoulders to rebound during a crash. Another is that not everyone's posture is the same. A head restraint that sits too close will interfere with a person's head position, while one that is too far from the person's head will lose its effectiveness.

Consumer Reports evaluates rear seat head restraints and has found that many seats use integral restraints that it characterizes as little more than bumps on the top of seatbacks. Of the vehicles that it has thus far tested in 2007, not many more than half were found to have restraints in the rear positions that were tall enough without adjustment. It considers a head restraint that cannot stay fixed at least 29.5 inches above the seat cushion as being ineffective in preventing whiplash.

And even when a car offers an adequate restraint, most people either do not know how, or simply do not take the time to properly position them. For maximum protection, the top of the restraint should reach at least as high as the top of the person's ears and be three or less inches away from the back of the individual's head. While adjustable restraints can be raised, lowered or tilted forward and backward, a 2002 survey conducted by Progressive Insurance found that 40% of the drivers did not adjust their head restraint when driving a newly-purchased car and that only 14% of them knew the optimal positioning.

Some vehicles now have "active" head restraints that automatically move up and forward during a rear-end crash. But in recent IIHS tests, only two-thirds of the 37 vehicles with active restraints received a "good" or "acceptable" score. Its president has commented that this underscores that it is not only the head restraint, but the seat design that determines what occurs during an accident. For adequate protection, the seat and head restraint combination should be designed so that a person's torso, neck and head move in the same plane during a crash.

So what does the future hold for rear-end crash protection? An upgrade to the federal government's head restraint rule becomes mandatory in 2009 for all cars built on or after September 1, 2008. It requires that front outboard head restraints reach a minimum height of 29.5 inches from an occupant's hip and be able to sit within 2.2 inches behind a person's head. While an improvement to the current law, Consumers Union does not believe that it goes far enough. For example, it notes that the law does not currently mandate rear seat head restraints.

However, all of us can still take measures to minimize the risk of injury in a rear-end accident by learning more about a vehicle's crash ratings. The IIHS' front seat head restraint ratings are available on its website, http://www.iihs.org/, while rear seat restraint evaluations can be found by consulting Consumer Reports' monthly test reports. Moreover, all of us can take the time to adjust the head restraints in our cars and make certain that we are seated upright and belted in when driving.