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Kingston Whiplash Injury - Accident Injury Care

With more than three million whiplash injuries reported each year, here are some tips to reduce your risk:

Imagine you're driving along, carefree, complying with the rules of the road, when you come to stop at an intersection. And just as you stop, you hear the screech of tires behind you, and boom! - you've been rear-ended. It wasn't anything major, nobody was seriously hurt but it was enough to rattle your nerves. And although it wasn't life threatening, it could've potentially disabled you for the rest of your life if it wasn't for your headrests.

Most people don't think about it but headrests are an important safety feature in your car. In fact, the word headrest is a general term wrongly applied to the head restraints, because their sole purpose is to reduce your chance of whiplash injuries.

Common injuries incurred from whiplash are neck, shoulder and back pains; and in some severe cases spinal injury.

To understand the anatomy of whiplash, you have to understand physics. Isaac Newton's first law states that an object at rest stays at rest while an object in motion stays in motion. So when a car is rear-ended, the kinetic energy from the moving car is transferred to the stationery car and is then transferred from the seat to your torso. This accelerates the torso, which should be restrained by the seatbelt. And while the torso is accelerated, the head remains motionless because it's balanced on the neck rather than resting against the head restraint. This produces a difference of acceleration and velocity between the torso and the head, known as shearing force. Thisforce is directed onto the spine, leading to damage of the spinal ligaments, discs, joints and nerves.

Decreasing the backset (the distance between the back of the head and the front of the head restraint) is important to minimize the acceleration and velocity differences of the head and torso, reducing the risk of injury.

Just as important is the topset (the distance from the top of the head to the top of the head restraint). If the head restraint is set too low, the head will rotate over the top of the restraint. This is known as bending force, which causes similar injuries.

"Each year three million whiplash related injuries are reported," said Dr Arthur C Croft, founder of the Spinal Research Institute of San Diego. "And of that three million, half will never fully recover from chronic aches and pains. But about 10% will become disabled, meaning they're unable to work." This is a chilling statistic, and whiplash injuries are considered a health epidemic, estimated to cost consumers $43 billion every year. But there are simple ways to reduce whiplash injury.

Adjust your head restraint so the topset and the backset are positioned to your head. It takes less than a minute. "About 80% of drivers never adjust their head restraint. It only needs adjusting once, unlike seat belts," explained Dr Croft.

Adjust your seat to sit upright. Leaning the seat back and slouching forward not only increases the backset, it also increases the topset since the head restraint is lower than the top of your head. The idea is to minimize the distance and to hit the head restraint square in the center in a rear-end crash.

Swapping out stock seats for racing seats is a popular upgrade, and not just for aesthetics. They hold the body snugly and have a fixed head restraint that can't be adjusted. This is a good thing since many reputable companies like Recaro and Sparco build their seats to the strictest of safety specs, with the top of the seat usually much higher than the driver's head. Some racing seats are also non-reclineable, which forces you to sit upright. However, seatbelts are a must. If you don't wear one you'll be at far greater risk of injury. And if you fit harnesses with racing seats, ensure they are secured and tight.

In the past, bodies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Insurance Institute For Highway Safety have conducted tests to rate the safety of each make and model of car. Auto manufacturers then use the results to improve safety and use it to sell the cars to the consumer. However, the IIHS only recently expanded its testing to rate seats and head restraints. They've just released the top safety picks for 2006 and you'll be happy to know the top picks for 2006 are the Audi A3, A4 and A6, VW Jetta and Passat and the new Saab 9-3. The European marques account for more than half the top picks.

If you were injured in a car accident, let Dr. Blisko bring you relief from your injury or pain. Dr Blisko has over two decades of experience treating auto accident injuries.