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New Road Safety Campaign Launched To Prevent Whiplash
Wed, 21 Oct 2009

Road safety charity Brake has launched a new campaign to help raise awareness of whiplash injury and other head and neck safety issues among companies and their staff.

The group’s Move Up initiative is designed to help drivers reduce their chances of sustaining whiplash following an accident by highlighting the importance of properly-positioned head restraints .

Research by the charity revealed that a correctly fitted head restraint can lower the risk of a person suffering whiplash by almost a quarter (24 per cent).

But it also showed that only a third of UK motorists regularly check their head restraint, and of these just 6 per cent know how to adjust it so that it offers maximum protection, i.e. prevents the neck from ‘hyper-extending’ backwards in a crash.

Brake is calling on companies to tackle the issue of ill-fitted head restraints by attending its Fleet Safety Forum workshop on December 2nd in Thatcham, Berkshire.

Experts at Thatcham’s crash laboratory will explain the latest technologies being employed in head restraint design, and outline the importance of promoting correct head restraint practices among staff.

Roz Cumming, Fleet Safety Forum manager at Brake, said: "Given that the majority of drivers still don’t know how to position their head restraints correctly, this is clearly an important and valuable workshop for fleet safety professionals to attend."

"We urge fleet safety, risk and HR managers to attend and use what they learn to prevent potentially crippling injuries amongst their workers."

According to Matthew Avery, research manager at Thatcham, whiplash is the most common car accident -related injury and results in around 432,000 claims from UK motorists each year.
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