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Headrest
| Important nerves run through the spinal chord. |
To be paralyzed is bad enough, but very often, it's all about which functions still remain intact. In this case, injuries to the cervical vertebra area are probably the worst. Particularly the rear-impact collision causes the
accident researchers a lot of headaches. For the rear seat passengers in the Toyota IQ, there are even air-bags in front of the rear windscreen.
| Headrest near to the head. |
Hopefully it is clear, that the top of the headrest should be at eye-level and adjusted to be as near to the back of the head as possible. A number of manufacturers install active headrests, which, if the pressure from the
upper body, onto the backrest, is too high, are mechanically triggered and snap forwards. The stronger the rear impact is, the quicker the reaction time of the active headrests is.
| Mechanical system of the active headrest. |
What such a system can prevent, is called whiplash (cervical trauma). It requires neither a control device nor a trigger-sensor. It can also be, e.g., like the spring loaded roll-over bar, quite simply brought back to its
original position, which is mostly done by the mechanics in the backrest. 11/09
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