I’ve played Judo, and I’m a licensed EMT, and I’ve worked in ERs, and I’m a third year medical student. I am quite confident in telling you that you are incorrect. Modern safety standards make it so that the seatbelt locks in a crash and limits your longitudinal inertia. Also, many dummies (and actual humans I have cared for) have “hit their head wrong” on the headrest due to their height, posture, or position, and they don’t break their necks. Did their scalenes, paraspinal muscles, and sternocleidomastoids hurt like hell? Absolutely. But they didn’t have broken necks.
Your body can compensate for a lot, but it was the introduction of headrests in cars that has been one of the biggest contributors to the drastic reduction in fatalities. The point of the headrest is the same as the seatbelt: to limit the range of motion your body goes through in a crash. Seatbelt signs and headrest concussions are real things that can cause some pretty significant problems, but those problems are easier to fix when the patient isn’t dead or quadriplegic.
Modern safety standards make it so that the seatbelt locks in a crash and limits your longitudinal inertia.
That’s what I was trying to say.
I’ve now realised that I’ve explained myself poor. To reiterate;
Seatbelts reduce whiplash, so does correct posture. Poor posture inherently leads to a loosed seatbelt because it extends the range between you and your seat.
A lot of people consider a crash which lurches you forward, but if you get rear ended, the difference which matters will be your posture. If your head and neck are cushioned, you’re going to be much better off.
Fair point about the broken spines. It’s not hard to imagine how much worse things could be without correctly fitted headrests and seatbelts.
I’ve played Judo, and I’m a licensed EMT, and I’ve worked in ERs, and I’m a third year medical student. I am quite confident in telling you that you are incorrect. Modern safety standards make it so that the seatbelt locks in a crash and limits your longitudinal inertia. Also, many dummies (and actual humans I have cared for) have “hit their head wrong” on the headrest due to their height, posture, or position, and they don’t break their necks. Did their scalenes, paraspinal muscles, and sternocleidomastoids hurt like hell? Absolutely. But they didn’t have broken necks.
Your body can compensate for a lot, but it was the introduction of headrests in cars that has been one of the biggest contributors to the drastic reduction in fatalities. The point of the headrest is the same as the seatbelt: to limit the range of motion your body goes through in a crash. Seatbelt signs and headrest concussions are real things that can cause some pretty significant problems, but those problems are easier to fix when the patient isn’t dead or quadriplegic.
That’s what I was trying to say.
I’ve now realised that I’ve explained myself poor. To reiterate;
Seatbelts reduce whiplash, so does correct posture. Poor posture inherently leads to a loosed seatbelt because it extends the range between you and your seat.
A lot of people consider a crash which lurches you forward, but if you get rear ended, the difference which matters will be your posture. If your head and neck are cushioned, you’re going to be much better off.
Fair point about the broken spines. It’s not hard to imagine how much worse things could be without correctly fitted headrests and seatbelts.