Insurance Industry Headrest Report

Insurance Industry Headrest Report Confirms Whiplash Risk

By Sal Fariello

Whiplash victims know all about how skeptically most people treat them when they say they have sustained whiplash injury in a car crash. Victims are often labeled “phonies” or hypochondriacs. However, actions by the insurance industry in recent years have the potential to make it easier for whiplash victims to convince others that they are telling the truth about their pain and suffering. In November of 2004 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) published Status Report Volume 39, Number 10 dated November 20, 2004. In the status report, the IIHS condemned just about every headrest in just about every car and light truck on the road as being ineffective in preventing whiplash injury. It might surprise some people that the IIHS devoted so much attention to the failure of headrests to prevent an injury which most insurance adjusters seem to regard as being fraudulent!

Then in January 2005 the next bomb went off in the whiplash injury debate when the IIHS announced that the U.S. Government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had passed a rule requiring that all cars and trucks sold in the U.S. beginning in 2009 must meet new headrest design requirements intended to reduce the possibility of whiplash injury. The story is told in IIHS Status Report Volume 40, Number 2, January 31, 2005. The new government standards will only affect front seat headrests. If the vehicle is fitted with rear seat headrests, then those headrests must meet the new standards for whiplash prevention.

It is doubtful that NHTSA would require car manufacturers to install special headrests to prevent neck injuries that did not exist! The new headrest standards are a fine step in the right direction. Unfortunately, vehicle manufacturers will not be required to put any headrests at all in the rear seats. This is inexcusable, and will hopefully be remedied in the future. To obtain copies of the IIHS status reports discussed in this article, see www.iihs.org or call the IIHS at (703) 247-1500.

This article is excerpted from the publication Whiplash Injury, by Sal Fariello an important tool for plaintiff's counsel and unrepresented whiplash victims.