In a video shared to Twitter right now, the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security (IIHS) clarifies the significance of a correctly adjusted automobile seat head restraint. Although we colloquially check with them as headrests, they’re extra precisely known as head restraints, and they’re designed to guard your head when you get in an accident, not essentially for most consolation. To ensure that the restraint to work correctly and hold you as protected as doable, it’s good to have it correctly adjusted, one thing many drivers don’t do.
Rear-end collisions are the commonest sort of automobile crash on American roads, and the neck accidents they trigger account for as much as 83 p.c of reported accidents in U.S. auto insurance coverage claims, in line with a examine revealed within the Nationwide Library of Drugs. A correctly adjusted head restraint might stop neck sprains and strains in addition to extra critical spinal accidents, however some individuals flip their head restraints round or take away all of them collectively for the sake of consolation. Head restraints are designed by producers to supply most whiplash safety whereas minimizing discomfort, however each human physique is completely different, so some individuals battle to discover a snug head restraint place.
Folks with lengthy hair usually cite the discomfort brought on by head restraints when sporting a ponytail or hair clip, however eradicating or flipping round a head restraint might trigger critical, in any other case simply preventable accidents. Some individuals even suggest in opposition to sporting plastic claw clips on the again of your head whereas driving, since they will trigger further trauma within the occasion of a rear-end collision. No matter your coiffure, correctly adjusted head restraints are confirmed to cut back accidents in accidents. In accordance with the IIHS,
When a car is struck within the rear and pushed ahead, occupants’ torsos transfer ahead with their seats. If an individual’s head isn’t supported by a head restraint, the pinnacle lags behind the torso, and the differential movement causes the neck to bend and stretch. The upper the torso acceleration, the extra sudden the movement, the upper the forces on the neck, and the extra doubtless a neck harm is to happen.
The important thing to lowering whiplash harm threat is to maneuver the pinnacle and torso collectively. To perform this, the geometry of a head restraint must be sufficient — excessive sufficient and close to the again of the pinnacle. Then the seat construction and stiffness should be designed to work in live performance with the pinnacle restraint to assist an occupant’s neck and head, accelerating them with the torso because the car is pushed ahead. That’s why good head restraints are so vital.”
It’s vital to have head restraints correctly adjusted to permit them to work as meant. To correctly set your car’s adjustable head restraint, elevate it up in order that the highest of the pinnacle restraint is even with the highest of your head. Should you’re a tall freak like me and the highest of the pinnacle restraint received’t attain the highest of your head, simply elevate it to its highest place. Should you’re on the shorter aspect, no adjustment could also be essential. To attenuate the space from the again of your head to the pinnacle restraint, it could be essential to regulate the seat’s recline angle, and a few head restraints are capable of be adjusted fore and aft along with up and down.
