…adjust your seat back and head restraint?
Severe crashes from the rear are relatively uncommon. Depending on the statistics you find, fatal rear end impacts are usually well under 10% of all serious crashes. On the other hand, rear-enders are a lot more common at lower speeds, in crashes with less severe injuries. Whiplash injuries are relatively common in these types of impacts. While they are rarely fatal, they can cause a lot of health issues. The best way to prevent or reduce the severity of these types of injuries is to make sure your vehicle seat back and head restraint are adjusted correctly. This website has a great pictorial guide:
http://www.safety.ed.ac.uk/resources/General/Driving_posture.shtm
The IIHS also does a test for safety in rear impacts. In a future blog, I’ll discuss some flaws with this testing and why the passenger really needs to actively adjust their own seat to protect themselves.
I always adjust my seat and head restraint optimally! In fact, a little over a month ago I was rear-ended and I distinctly remember my head bouncing off the head restraint and thinking “wow, my head didn’t go back much at all!”. I was in proper position and only suffered very minor whiplash (as in, I was totally healed within a couple of days).
I always adjust the seat, as dh likes to have his seat more reclined than I do. but the head rest is in the same spot for both of us.
I always adjust my head restraint, seat position and seatbelt to their optimal positions. And I constantly remind DS1 (12) to do the same. I’ll adjust things for DH too if I see something that isn’t right. If he complains about my “meddling” (which he’s been known to do) I tell him “it’s when I stop trying to adjust your head restraint or seatbelt that you need to worry.” That usually shuts him up. LOL
I do:) But my dh doesn’t. He doesn’t find it “that”important. But, I fix his when I can. I also adjust his seatbelt (he twists it sometimes). You would think, as he tells me all the time how he has seen kids in wrecks and what can happen, that he would wear his own seatbelt correctly (where is the eye roll smiley?)
Most head restraints only have a height adjustment. You have to move the vehicle seat back forward to adjust it’s position correctly. That and correct driving posture may be necessary in some vehicles, though this might not be the most comfortable driving position.
My headrests aren’t very adjustable (height only), but because I often take off the passenger headrest when no one is there to give Piper a better view, I do make sure I have it on and at the right height for a passenger.
I always wear my seatbelt, and my seatback has to be as upright as possible for me to be able to fit in the car.
Wow, did not know that. Off to fix my headrests!
I always try to adjust mine in my 2003 Honda Odyssey…but they are definitely not going to work as well as the restraints in my 2006 Ford Escape. I can lean my head WAY back (it feels like, anyway!) before it touches the restraint in the Ody, while it’s right behind my head in the Ford.
Head restraints were something a great tech once told me to mention to parents, so I always say something about it if I get a chance 🙂