Shock Results Of Head Restraint Tests

Saturday, 10. January 2009

It wasn’t long ago when I advised drivers to check the settings of their head restraints in order to prevent one of the most common driving injuries, whiplash. Well it now turns out that EuroNCAP, the body that checks the safety of every new car, now has a new test that it carries out on seats to check their ability to prevent whiplash. It showed that 8 new cars launched in 2008 failed the new test including some surprises, Ford Kuga, Citroen C5 and Peugeot 308CC. These cars were given a ‘red rating’ which meant that the driver had a ‘significantly higher risk of developing a long term injury following a low speed rear end collision’. The three cars mentioned were all given 5 star safety ratings but it means that from this year they will lose this top rating as a result of failing the whiplash test. Other failures were Daihatsu Cuore, Citroen Berlingo, Hyundai i10, Daihatsu Terios and Suzuki Splash. Of the 25 tested 5 received the top score, Volvo XC60, Alfa Romeo Mito, VW Golf, Audi A4 and Vauxhall Insignia. To put this into perspective the number of whiplash claims as a result of a low speed collision is 1,200 per day, that’s right PER DAY! I think we can expect to see some pretty sharp reaction by the manufacturers as a result of these new tests and findings with new design seats finding their way quickly into the next face lifted cars. By Graham Hill