SGIO Testing Reveals New Head Restraints Cutting Chances of Whiplash

New car shoppers are less likely to suffer whiplash in a collision thanks to better-designed head restraints, testing by SGIO has revealed.

Perth, Western Australia (PRWEB) August 1, 2009 -- New car shoppers are less likely to suffer whiplash in a collision thanks to better-designed head restraints, testing by car insurance provider SGIO has revealed.

International research conducted and funded by a number of insurers, including SGIO in Australia, Thatcham Motor Insurance Research Centre in the UK and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the USA, tested head restraint effectiveness in 148 new cars.

Volvo and Saab are two manufacturers that have made significant improvements in head restraint design

Volvo, for example, has seats which support the driver or passengers' entire back and head. In the event of a rear-end collision the back rest follows your movement forward to provide support as the body is thrown into a whiplash motion.

Unfortunately, however, there does seem to be a trend to skip on safety features in commercial vehicles and this has been highlighted in our results. All three commercial vehicles which were tested fared poorly

Hopefully manufacturers that have performed poorly take these results into consideration and realise they can improve safety with better head restraint design for little additional cost.

Better head restraint design can certainly reduce the risk of a neck injuries occurring in car crashes. Passengers can also be proactive in adjusting the head restraint to suit their seating position

The dynamic part of the test included a simulated low speed (15km/h) rear-end collision using a human sized dummy. Further static testing took into consideration the height of the head restraint and its distance from the passenger's head and the effectiveness of the surrounding cushion.

SGIO Head of Research Robert McDonald praised the improvements, but noted head restraints in nearly 30 per cent of new cars tested still rated as 'marginal' or 'poor', with commercial vehicles among the worst.

"Volvo and Saab are two manufacturers that have made significant improvements in head restraint design," said Mr McDonald.

"Volvo, for example, has seats which support the driver or passengers' entire back and head. In the event of a rear-end collision the back rest follows your movement forward to provide support as the body is thrown into a whiplash motion."

The best performer of the locally produced cars was the Ford Falcon, with the FG model Falcon achieving a 'good' rating. This comes on the back of the Falcon's five star ANCAP rating.

"Unfortunately, however, there does seem to be a trend to skip on safety features in commercial vehicles and this has been highlighted in our results. All three commercial vehicles which were tested fared poorly," Mr McDonald said.

"Hopefully manufacturers that have performed poorly take these results into consideration and realise they can improve safety with better head restraint design for little additional cost."

Mr McDonald said whiplash, often caused by poor head restraints, costs the Australian community hundreds of millions of dollars per year.* Only 19 per cent** of WA consumers make it their top consideration when choosing a car, although most rank it in their top three.

"Better head restraint design can certainly reduce the risk of a neck injuries occurring in car crashes. Passengers can also be proactive in adjusting the head restraint to suit their seating position," said McDonald.

*Based on SGIO Car Insurance claims data
**Based on Woolcott Research, commissioned in February 2009 by SGIO

Tips for motorists with manual head restraints
Adjust the head restraint so the top of the restraint is above eye-level
Every driver is different, so check the head restraint every time you get in the car
Before turning on the ignition, adjust the seat, mirrors, seatbelt and head restraint.

Types of head restraints
Active - a head restraint or seat system that takes an active approach to injury prevention, designed to deploy automatically in the event of a collision
Automatic - a head restraint that automatically adjusts its position when the seat is adjusted by the occupants
Manual - a head restraint that is manually positioned to suit the passenger or driver.

About Us
SGIO provides Car Insurance, Home Insurance, Motorcycle Insurance and more for Western Australia.

Insurance issued by Insurance Australia Limited ABN 11 000 016 722 trading as NRMA Insurance. When making decisions about the product you should consider the Product Disclosure Statement available from NRMA Insurance.

# # #

Post Comment:
Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/VGhpci1GYWx1LVpldGEtQ291cC1Mb3ZlLUNvdXAtWmVybw==

car insurance restraint shopping whiplash collision sgio motor insurance auto insurance vehicle insurance motorcycle insurance

Bookmark -  Del.icio.us | Furl It | Technorati | Ask | MyWeb | Propeller | Live Bookmarks | Newsvine | TailRank | Reddit | Slashdot | Digg | Stumbleupon | Google Bookmarks | Sphere | Blink It | Spurl

• New NRMA Insurance research shows kangaroos are collision risk for drivers 2009-08-11
• NRMA Insurance Research Shows New Cars Less Likely to be a Pain in the Neck 2009-08-01
• SGIC Praises New Head Restraints for Reducing Whiplash 2009-08-01
• New Research Shows New Car Shoppers Less Likely to Suffer Whiplash 2009-08-01
• SGIO Finds Worms and Compost at Home in Eco-Friendly Western Australia 2009-07-09