Rear-end impacts are the most frequent type of automotive collisions. The most common
\ninjuries associated with rear-end impacts are soft tissue neck injuries, often called whiplash
\ninjuries, which bring about a significant cost to society every year. A major factor in reducing
\nthe risk of a whiplash injury is the proper positioning of the head restraint (HR) relative to the
\nseated occupant\u2019s head at the time of impact. In fact, current research shows that the risk of
\nserious whiplash injuries can be reduced by 35% through proper positioning of the HR.
\nHowever, according to a 2002 Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) observational study of HR
\nuse, on average 86% of Canadian drivers had their HRs positioned \u201cpoorly\u201d thus providing
\ninadequate whiplash protection. This very low rate of proper HR positioning indicates a strong
\nneed for action to reduce the impact of whiplash injuries on society.
\nThe lack of proper HR positioning prompted the researchers at UBC to initiate an AUTO21 NCE
\nsponsored initiative entitled the \u201cWhiplash Prevention Campaign\u201d. The main goal of this
\ninitiative is to increase awareness of the importance and use of whiplash prevention measures
\nby educating the public via comprehensive social marketing strategies and vehicle safety
\nawareness programs. To evaluate the effectiveness of these safety awareness programs, up-todate
\nbaseline statistics of proper HR usage were deemed necessary and a new observational
\nstudy was initiated in 2010. This paper presents the updated findings of implementing this
\nobservational study method (methodology initially presented at CMRSC XXI) for assessing HR
\nuse in passenger vehicles on public roadways within BC.
\nThe observational study was initially implemented at various sites near intersections throughout
\nGreater Vancouver (Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, UBC Campus, etc. - results presented at
\nCMRSC XXII), with subsequent sites more recently being selected and sampled within the BC
\nInterior (Kamloops, Kelowna), on Vancouver Island (Nanaimo), and in Northern BC (Prince
\nGeorge). This subsequent data collection provides a larger and more diversified dataset of
\npassenger vehicles and occupants for comparison in this expanded BC Provincial study. As per
\nthe defined study protocol, collected images of vehicle occupants were obtained and computeranalyzed
\nusing customized software to provide quantitative assessment of the HR position
\nrelative to the occupant\u2019s head. The relative position of the HR was then evaluated based on
\nthe Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) static position ratings (i.e. Good, Acceptable,
\nMarginal, or Poor).
\nA sample set of 2770 analyzed observations was obtained at 31 different sites across the
\nprovince which included 2572 drivers and 198 passengers. The results show that only 44% of
\ndrivers had their HR positioned in the \u201cGood\u201d rated position to prevent or reduce risk of whiplash
\ninjury (based on the IIHS static position rating). Only 61% of drivers had their HR positioned
\nrated as \u201cAdequate\u201d, i.e. \u201cAdequate\u201d being either in the \u201cGood\u201d or \u201cAcceptable\u201d range. Drivers in
\nthe Greater Vancouver region were more likely to have their HRs \u201cAdequately\u201d positioned
\ncompared to elsewhere in the province, however, subsequent statistical analysis indicated that
\nthis result could be attributed to the different distribution of vehicle types in more rural versus
\nmore urban areas.
\nAlthough there has clearly been an increase in the rate of proper HR use since the IBC study of
\n2002, this study finds that still more than half of the drivers in the sampled population are not
\noptimally protected from whiplash injuries. The findings of this study provide baseline
\ninformation valuable for assessing the impact of social marketing interventions directed towards
\nincreasing whiplash safety awareness and changing occupant behaviour regarding the proper
\npositioning of vehicle HRs.<\/p>\n
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Payam Saffari, Douglas P. Romilly, Marc White, Ediriweera Desapriya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"default","_kad_post_title":"default","_kad_post_layout":"default","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"default","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"default","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[128,346],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-cmrsc-ccmsr-xxiv-vancouver","category-research-and-evaluation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18799"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19780,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18799\/revisions\/19780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carsp.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}