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Women hurt most by whiplash - and posture is blamed
SWEDISH researchers have found women have a three-times greater risk of whiplash injuries than men - and it is the way women sit in a car that is much to blame. According to Bertil Jonsson, who led the study, women drivers adjust the driver's seat differently. They sit higher and closer to the steering wheel than men and have their rest angle more upright.
"This means that females will have a slightly higher horizontal shear stress component to the spine in rear-end impacts compared to males," Mr Jonsson says. Women are also inclined to slouch more while they drive and this may be because car seats are really tailored for men.
"Both a slouched seated posture and having one's hands on the top of the steering wheel result in increased risk for end-range loading of the cervical spine segments," Mr Jonsson says.The findings, in a dissertation published by Sweden's Umeå University* also include the suggestion that more should be done to improve car seat design for women - starting with crash dummies.
"Current crash dummies used to develop vehicle seats and neck supports, for instance, are geared to men of normal size, but not to women," Mr Jonsson says.
"This is especially true in regard to height. Nor does testing methodology take into consideration differences between the sexes, or differences in sitting position between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat."
He says further research is needed into sitting positions starting with female crash dummies.
