(WWJ) -- It’s a new effort to protect drivers from whiplash.
“Whiplash is a big problem,” says Marcy Edwards, a senior research engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. “Rear impact crashes are the most common crash on the roadway today.”
So the institute has toughened the crash test it puts vehicles through to determine how well seats and head restraints prevent neck injuries. Edwards was responsible for developing the new test, that replaced a procedure that had been in use for twenty years.
“The original test simulated a rear impact crash, a vehicle getting impacted at 20 miles per hour. This new update expands the the test that we assess by adding an additional test, where it simulates a vehicle getting impacted at thirty miles an hour.”
In the first round of evaluations using the new test, only four of 18 vehicles got a good rating. Nine were acceptable. Five were given poor ratings.
“Neck sprains and strains are the most frequently reported injuries in U.S. auto insurance claims,” says IIHS President David Harkey. “This new test challenges automakers to further improve their seats and head restraints to provide better protection in the rear impacts that typically cause these injuries.”
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is funded by the insurance industry, with the goal of pushing carmakers into building safer vehicles. Their frequent crash tests are closely watched. Carmakers strive to get one of their “Top Safety Pick” designations for their vehicles.
We often see carmakers take these tests into account when they are redesigning vehicles. So this could result in future vehicles including more head and neck protection
“Automakers did a great job responding to the twenty mile an hour crash,” says Edwards. “They had twenty years to improve their seats so they did well in that test. But, it really didn’t make the problem go away."