Saab vehicles have been awarded top marks for neck injury protection by the UK’s Thatcham insurance research centre.

Simulating rear-end collisions, the Thatcham tests rate the performance of front seats and head restraints in relation to neck injury protection as 'Poor', 'Marginal', 'Acceptable' or 'Good'.

Saab 9-3 Convertible, SportCombi and 9-5 models have all been awarded the best-possible 'Good' rating, as achieved last year by the 9-3 Sport Sedan in the first round of tests.

Thatcham performs static and dynamic tests on seat design. It measures the position of the head restraint, relative to an occupant's head, on a crash test dummy representing a mid-sized, male adult. A dynamic test is then performed with the seated dummy mounted on a sled, which is accelerated to 16 km/h in 0.1 seconds to simulate the effect of a typical low speed rear-end collision.

“Saab has been a benchmark for designing seats to help prevent whiplash injury,” said Thatcham Crash Research Manager, Matthew Avery.

“Real world data from insurance claims shows that the Saab 9-3 with active head restraints has produced a 42 per cent reduction in whiplash injuries, compared to the previous model which did not have them.

“The ‘best practice’ approach from Saab was a fundamental part of the International Insurance Whiplash Prevention Group's test procedure and it encourages all manufacturers to fit similar systems.”

The Saab Active Head Restraint (SAHR) has been developed to reduce relative movement between the head and lower back. The restraint is mounted at the top of a frame, inside the seat-back, which is designed to pivot at its mid point. In a rear-end impact, the occupant’s lower back is forced rearwards by inertia against the bottom portion of the seat-back. A mechanical linkage in the frame then forces the upper half, carrying the head restraint, upwards and forwards to catch the occupant’s head and help minimize the amount of whiplash movement.

“Although rear-end collisions are seldom life-threatening, they are a common type of accident which can cause long-term injury and discomfort,” said Per Lenhoff, head of crash safety at Saab Automobile. “The Thatcham results are in line with our own research and the findings of similar organisations in other countries, such as the US and Germany. They all confirm the value of our pioneering work in developing the SAHR.”

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