The new anti-whiplash headrest system from BMW

If you are involved in a rear-end car accident, statistics tell us that you have a one in four chance of sustaining a whiplash injury. Whiplash is caused when the head is very quickly jerked back and forwards at the moment of collision, resulting in damage to the muscles and ligaments in the neck.

It is a long-overlooked injury which causes pain and misery for thousands of people in the UK each year. For many years, the fact that it was difficult to detect physically meant that whiplash sufferers were dismissed as being hypochondriacs or malingerers, and could not get any treatment. Now, fortunately for the huge number who suffer the effects of whiplash, it is taken more seriously and motorists can now claim against car insurance companies for compensation.

So what can be done to prevent some of the estimated 200,000 whiplash injuries that occur in UK car accidents each year? Well, anyone who buys a BMW 5 or 6 Series, BMW X5 or BMW X3 after autumn 2007 will have a better chance than most of avoiding this painful neck injury if they are involved in a road accident.

This is because BMW will be installing as standard in these models special head restraints which spring into action to provide extra protection from whiplash should a collision occur. When these so-called "crash-activated head restraints" detect the fact that there has been an accident, a padded impact plate will be pushed up and towards the back of the seat occupant's head. What this does is reduce the length of the extended nodding back and forward motion which causes the damage to the neck, hopefully preventing a whiplash injury altogether.

It is a complex mechanism which triggers the movement of the impact plate; one which is started by the same sensors which tell the airbags to inflate. This then activates a pyro-actuator, which sets in motion a set of reactions and movements within the head restraint, ending with the head restraint moving forwards and upwards.

Once the crash-actived head restraint has been triggered in an accident, it must be reset as the pyro-actuator will have been expended. This is a relatively simple procedure, but one for which the car must be returned to BMW.

BMWs with this special head restraint are easy to spot, thanks to the novel design of it. There are two layers to it, with the back appearing the same as a normal head restraint and a raised, padded area on the front. It is this front piece which moves in the collision, although its position can also be adjusted to improve comfort for normal driving.

However, BMW is not the only manufacturer to come up with whiplash protection systems for the occupants of its cars. Saab and Volvo have been fitting their vehicles with similarly effective systems, although they differ quite substantially in their form. Both these manufacturers have integrated their anti-whiplash head restraint into a whole-seat system, which has proven remarkably effective.

It is likely that the addition of these head restraints to BMWs will gain the manufacturer lots of ground in the Thatcham safety rankings. Recently a number of BMWs, including the X3 and the popular 5 Series received a "poor" rating when their seats were examined for whiplash protection; something these crash-activated head restraints should change.

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