Euro NCAP reveals whiplash danger

Whiplash tests on car seats reveal that 80 per cent need to improve to protect against painful imjury. Today's Euro NCAP results for seats put through the organisation’s first ever round of rear impact testing tested the effectiveness of car seats at protecting against whiplash. The tests were carried out on the front seats of 25 passenger cars crash-tested by the organisation during 2008. The results revealed that most manufacturers still have a long way to go in improving seat design that will protect consumers from whiplash injury.Only five out of the 25 seats tested and taken from new cars received Euro NCAP’s best score with a ‘good’ or green result. These five cars were the Volvo XC60, Alfa Romeo Mito, Volkswagen Golf VI, Audi A4 and Vauxhall Insignia. This green result reflects a state of the art performance in whiplash protection. Euro NCAP reports that these carmakers have adopted good development strategies to prevent whiplash, but is concerned by the surprisingly low number of seats receiving a good result, when these cars are newly available on the market.Eight seats of the same 25 seats were rated as ‘poor’ or ‘red’ meaning that the seat occupant has a significantly higher risk of developing a long term injury in the case of a low speed rear end collision. These cars were the Daihatsu Cuore, Citroen Berlingo, Hyundai i10, Citroen C5, Ford Kuga, Daihatsu Terios, Peugeot 308CC and the Suzuki Splash. Three of the eight seats were from cars that were awarded five stars in Euro NCAP’s Adult Occupant protection rating during 2008.Dr Michiel Van Ratingen, Secretary-General of Euro NCAP explains; “The importance of this new Euro NCAP test has just been underlined with the release of these results. A consumer would never know how a seat would perform without this test. Buying a five star award winner will not guarantee that you have a good seat that will protect you from a potential whiplash injury. Euro NCAP’s new test will certainly encourage manufacturers to think again about seat design.”Whiplash, caused by or related to a sudden distortion of the spine, can lead to long painful and debilitating symptoms over many years. Whiplash is not uncommon in frontal and side impact accidents, but more often occurs in low speed, rear end collisions in urban environments. Whiplash is difficult to diagnose and difficult to treat, and is also expensive.Soft issue neck injuries currently cost European society billions of euros annually. It has been shown that this type of physical complaint accounts for the majority of the total cost of personal injury claims. The frequency of whiplash and its cost to European society has motivated Euro NCAP to integrate a new rear impact test into its crash test programme.First results for vehicles tested under Euro NCAP’s new rating system will be released in February 2009. From this date, consumers should look out for the new overall Euro NCAP star rating for their vehicle.

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