Monash University Accident Research Centre, Clayton Campus, 21 Alliance Lane, Clayton, VIC, 3800, Australia.
Accid Anal Prev. 2021 Feb;150:105941. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2020.105941. Epub 2020 Dec 17.
Head restraint systems specifically engineered to reduce the impact of whiplash injury in the event of a rear-end collision were introduced in the late 1990s with the aim of reducing whiplash injury risk that went 'beyond simple geometric improvements' to head restraints. Whilst studies have shown that whiplash-reducing head restraint systems are highly effective in reducing whiplash injury, these were based on a limited range of systems including Toyota's Whiplash Injury Lessening (WIL) seating system, Volvo's Whiplash Injury Prevention System (WHIPS) and the Saab Active Head Restraint (SAHR) and have generally focussed on Swedish crash and insurance data. However, there has been no broad real-world crash-based evaluation of the effectiveness of whiplash-reducing head restraint systems currently present in the vehicle fleet that validates the results of these studies in other populations. The objective of this study was to undertake a retrospective evaluation of vehicle whiplash-reducing head restraint systems to prevent whiplash injury using real-world crash data linked to insurance claims data in Victoria, Australia. It was found that whiplash-reducing head restraint systems are associated with a statistically significant reduction in the odds of driver and front seat passenger whiplash injury in a vehicle struck in a rear-end collision of 11.6 % (95 % CI 0.20 %, 21.6 %). The results indicate that whiplash-reducing head restraint systems are an effective technology for reducing the risk of whiplash injury to drivers and front seat passengers in a vehicle struck in a rear-end collision. Considering that around a quarter of all casualty crashes involving passenger and light commercial vehicles are rear-end, the fitment of whiplash-reducing head restraint systems to all vehicles as a standard safety feature would likely see a significant reduction in the incidence of whiplash injury.
专门设计用于减少追尾碰撞中挥鞭伤影响的头枕系统于 20 世纪 90 年代后期推出，旨在降低头枕“超越简单的几何改进”的挥鞭伤风险。虽然研究表明，减少挥鞭伤的头枕系统在降低挥鞭伤方面非常有效，但这些研究基于有限范围的系统，包括丰田的 Whiplash Injury Lessening（WIL）座椅系统、沃尔沃的 Whiplash Injury Prevention System（WHIPS）和萨博的 Active Head Restraint（SAHR），并且通常侧重于瑞典的碰撞和保险数据。然而，目前还没有对车辆中现有的减少挥鞭伤的头枕系统的有效性进行广泛的基于实际碰撞的评估，以验证这些研究在其他人群中的结果。本研究的目的是使用与澳大利亚维多利亚州保险索赔数据相关的实际碰撞数据，对头枕系统进行回顾性评估，以预防挥鞭伤。结果发现，在追尾碰撞中，减少挥鞭伤的头枕系统与司机和前排乘客发生挥鞭伤的几率降低 11.6%（95%CI 0.20%，21.6%）具有统计学意义。结果表明，减少挥鞭伤的头枕系统是减少追尾碰撞中司机和前排乘客挥鞭伤风险的有效技术。考虑到涉及乘用车和轻型商用车的所有伤亡事故中约有四分之一是追尾事故，将减少挥鞭伤的头枕系统作为标准安全功能安装在所有车辆上，可能会显著降低挥鞭伤的发生率。
