health

Head restraints have been mandated in new passenger cars manufactured
in the United States since 1969. The effectiveness of these restraints in
preventing whiplash injuries is debated by specialists who study the
effects of whiplash injuries on the human body, however. One problem
is that people do not always adjust their head restraint to the proper
height for the size of their head and neck. The head restraint should be
adjusted so that the middle of the headrest is even with the upper tips of
the ears.
Another problem is that the stiffness of a car seat affects the likelihood
of a whiplash injury as much as the quality of the head restraint and
its proper adjustment. Safety engineers are still working on designing
better head restraints, including some that adjust their position automatically
when the driver moves the seat forward or backward.