[AaronBurns]

A simple, small air bag that is placed inside your headrest and activates when you are rear ended. Today's headrests and the headrests in the past have never prevented whiplash which is the most common problem in an accident and has the most lawsuits due to it. Your head is pushed forward by the rear-ending of another car or rear end collision then the air bag pads your head safely back against the head rest as your head comes back towards the seat at great force. It would be more effective in a crash that happens more often (rear endings) and would be small enough to fit inside the head rest protecting your head and neck from any harm at any speed.

We can use the exact same technology as the steering wheel air bags but, we just make them fit inside the head rest. Easy to install and you could have your older model car altered where they could replace your current head rest, putting in the new air bag head rest cheaply. I mean, isn't your life worth every penny?

Reward: Credit

[asbestosfriend]

Not a bad idea, but with the explosive power of an airbag, it might end up doping more damage than the rear-ending.

Instead, how about a headrest that is the correct height or at least more adjustable, both uap, down AND forward and backward. The more stable the head sits against a cusioned surface, the less chance of creating injusy as the head is already sitting against it. There is no added forward jolt. But since everyones height etc. is unique, the headrest should be completely customizable. That is also something that you could market as a replacement for any factory headrest.

Hope this helps.

[AaronBurns]

With whiplash, you have the head go forward first and then violently come back and the coming back is the kneck breaker.
So, let's recap. The head goes forward first, which allows our airbag too go off and stay puffed up on impact. Then, when the head finally comes back, it hits a nice soft pillow instead of some hard, pre-manufactured head rest that has never stopped whiplash in the past which, is also the main point of having a read head rest air bag in the first place.
I see no better way to prevent whiplash. If you find one let me know right away.

[Inventor_Supreme]

Don't quite understand your reasoning. The most severe whip lash occurs from rear ending, ie when hit from the rear. When this happens your head FIRST hits the head rest since the whole car is accelarated forwards, is then thrown forward, and then a secondary impact occurs when your seat belt restraint throws your body back into the seat again. However the first primary impact is the hardest and worse, and is the one you want to minimise. Since your head is only a few centimeters from the head rest when the rear end impact first occurs, an air bag wouldn't help. Sorry but keep thinking!

[AaronBurns]

First of all you didn't read our discussion carefully enough to understand it.
The air bag can open on intitial impact and stay full.
Thusly, you've all been beaten.
This prevents the neck from ever being injured at all. Is that good enough for you!!!!

[AaronBurns]

Besides. Airbags whip your face into it at 90 miles an hour and you suffer no damage.
If the Air bag in the head rest goes off, and is small enough, the whip forward would be minimal and harmless and much less of a force than the push back against the haed rest.
But, if your head is going in the direction of the head rest and the bag is going forward at the same speed then they off set each other. Duh! Mister Inventor.

[AaronBurns]

Airbags open as soon as the impact so, explain that!
If you are going 100 miles an hour and you are saved by an airbag from a frontal crash then the head rest air bag goes off at the same time as the rear impact (Like a front airbag) and prevents injury before the full impact is felt because the full force of the impact does not occur all in an instant. There is a time period, much like the Doplar effect, that occurs so, my idea still would work. No problem.
When you are first hit, by another vehicle from the rear, the first instant of impact is minimal and that is when the sensors switch on the air bag. Not after your head hits something.
You have to remember the speed of an airbag is much faster than the impact even if your head was on, or fractions of an inch away, from the head rest. The Airbag will always beat the impact and that is why they always save lives at any speed.
Unless you wanted to argue against the entire World Wide Auto industry then you should present your findings world wide and make a safer car. So, put your time into your own project and try to be helpful and not such a ?@#$. Okay!
If you have problems understanding things then, it is probably your lack of depth and not the idea!

[AaronBurns]

Asbestosfriend - Airbags are soft. They wont hurt you.
Try having a pillow fight or didn't your mom ever let you have a sleep over?

[xanado]

Sorry to pee in your strawberry patch but Swedish car maker SAAB has invented active headrests which prevent whiplash something like 10 or 12 years ago. I'm not sure how they work but there is certainly NO airbag!

[AaronBurns]

What if the initial whiplash bag from the steering wheel and dash came first and then the air bag was on delay for the sudden force back against the head rest.
I have seen the flexable head rests and they don't really provide quit the protection of the air bag or they might be making flexable steering wheels.
Not to rain on your party but, the special head rest is not in most cars so, not to be mean but, they probably only lessen rather than prevent whiplash at low speeds.
A simple (delay) on a head rest whiplash bag would prevent any kneck damage when added to a dash board or steering wheel air bag.
Thanks for writing.
Hey, Steve! What if we add a delay switch to the idea? Then will it make it to the pool? I hope you read this. If not then, someone let him know.
Oh! And I have seen and felt those built in type head rests that help since I detailed cars for five years and I think they don't make them for high speed crashes.
This might help me out on the idea so, again, thanks for replying.
No harm meant.
I just happen to be a car interior expert! Ha!

[viridian]

I thought the thing about whiplash is, your head gets thrown forward on rear impact (by the car's forward force), then back when the seat belt stops you. When your (heavy) head gets thrown back, you get neck and spine damage. It's not the bumps that do the injury but the unacceptably fast bending backwards and forwards of the spine. No? Yes? So an airbag that opened on the first impact, filling the space which your head would have whipped back through, would stop the damage...and would also stop your head impacting on the head rest. But it would have to be a very nicely tailored shape to stop lower parts of your spine from being bent forcibly into any gaps between your body and the car seat wouldn't it?

[AaronBurns]

How about an "Ejection Seat" with a parachute! Ha!
Solves any whiplash problems unless you have a hard top!

[xanado]

Aaron, I'm not sure what you mean by flexible headrests, maybe we're both talking about the same thing, but an active headrests actually moves forward when the car detects a rear end impact, thus accompanying your head's movment forward, preventing you from slamming back into the headrest, which causes the whiplash.

[BILLT]

It seems that most everybody posting to this subject has the wrong information of the sequence of events that cause whiplash from a rear-end accident. All except for Inventor_Supreme with his post on November 24th, 2004, he had it right.

The correct sequence of events during a rear-end strike, to cause whiplash, is as follows:

- First the car, along with the body (but not the head) of the occupant, moves forward because he/she is strapped into the seat. But due to Newton's 1st law of motion regarding inertia, (An object at rest tends to remain at rest and an object in motion tends to remain in motion) the head, which is just floating, remains where it is while the rest of the car and the body of the occupant are violently thrown forward. The result of this is that the head initially jerks back, relative to the occupants’ body. This jerking back of the head, relative to the rest of the body is what causes the most severe portions of whiplash and even broken necks.
- Secondly, after the head jerks back, the muscles in the neck will automatically contract to try and minimize excessive injury. This, combined with the flexing of the seat back to a more normal position, now that the g-load from the initial impact has been removed from it, causes the neck to jerk forward.
- Third, the seatbelt will restrain the occupant’s body from moving too far forward, therefore causing another jerk back, but not nearly as severe as the first one.

Therefore the best solution would seem to be a properly adjusted or dynamically adjusted headrest, as xanado pointed out. But one of your ideas that might make a little sense, although it’s sort of like closing the barn doors after the horse has left, is having the delay on the headrest airbag to minimize neck/head jerking on the second time around. Of course most of the damage has already been done by the first jerk back.