Head restraint

The major U. K. supplier of head restraints, Karobes, filed patents in the late 1950s and was still competitive in 1973 when British tests evaluated the quality of these devices.

The U.S. regulation, called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 202, requires that head restraints meet one of the following two standards of performance, design, and construction:[2] An evaluation performed by NHTSA in 1982 on passenger cars found that "integral" head restraints—a seat back extending high enough to meet the 27.5 in (698.5 mm) height requirement—reduces injury by 17 percent, while adjustable head restraints, attached to the seat back by one or more sliding metal shafts, reduce injury by 10 percent.

When the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revised the standard which governs head restraints for all new cars manufactured after 2008,[8][7] it established for the first time a requirement for the fore-aft position, or "backset".

[7] The focus of preventive measures to date has been on the design of car seats, primarily through the introduction of head restraints, often called headrests.

This approach is potentially problematic given the underlying assumption that purely mechanical factors cause whiplash injuries — an unproven theory.

[9] For the last 40 years, vehicle safety researchers have been designing and gathering information on the ability of head restraints to mitigate injuries resulting from rear-end collisions.

A major issue in whiplash prevention is the lack of proper adjustment of the seat safety system by both drivers and passengers.

In most passenger vehicles where manually adjustable head restraints are fitted, proper use requires sufficient knowledge and awareness by occupants.

Due to low public awareness of the consequence of incorrect positioning of head restraints, some passenger vehicle manufactures have designed and implemented a range of devices into their models to protect their occupants.