The Need of Car Headrest in Collisions

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One of the most important use of a headrest in a car is to protect the driver's neck and head from any kind of impeding danger, especially in collisions. Headrests are fixed on car seats to prevent neck injuries that occur during an automobile collision.

What happens in a collision ?
Rear-end collisions are caused when one car has stopped or is slowing down may be at a junction or a traffic lights, and there is another car traveling behind. The first car does not stop before hitting the back of the second car. This might also happen when there is a car parked, and a second car traveling at a high speed all of a sudden has to put the brakes and hence slam the first car. Similarly, in some collisions, the car traveling at a certain speed slams into another object.

How is the neck affected in collisions?
Depending on the force in which the brakes are applied, in all these collisions, the passenger and the driver's bodies move forward or stays in the same position, while the car seats are rigidly connected to the car frame. In both the cases the head is thrown either backwards or forwards. Once the head is thrown one way it naturally is thrown the other way because the neck muscles and vertebrae force it that way. The inertia of the head combined with the neck flexibility means the head will snap back. When the neck is being thrown back and forth beyond its normal range of motion, there is bound be neck injuries. It is this snapping motion that leads to injury in the neck, which is popularly referred as "whiplash". This causes problems like neck pain, numbness, headaches, weak hand grip and in a serious note, can also lead to further disease of the spine.

Need of Car Headrest
It is in such situations, car headrest is needed. The car seats with proper headrests can prevent neck injuries during collision. If the headrests are not fixed right, the neck injuries would be severe. Good headrests reduce the rearward motion of the head in a collision and decrease the chances of a whiplash neck injury. A headrest is the one of the most important safety devices in your vehicle. Findings show that headrests positioned at or above the head's center of gravity can effectively reduce reported neck pain. Drivers with such headrests or restraints reported 40% fewer instances of neck pain than those without headrests.