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Motivating Drivers to Correctly Adjust Head Restraints

An Effective Practice

Description

This program uses a face-to-face intervention to motivate drivers to correctly adjust their head restraints to reduce back and neck injuries. Research has shown that if all adjustable head restraints were adjusted to the proper height there would be a 28.3% reduction in whiplash injuries occurring in rear-end collisions. Through the program, traffic safety personnel educate patrons of the AirCare Centre, a vehicle emission testing facility. Drivers are given a card illustrating the correct positioning of headrests, warned about the dangers of improper positioning, and encouraged to adjust their head rest to the proper position. The face-to-face interaction with employees encourages drivers with incorrectly positioned head rests to make adjustments.

Goal / Mission

The goal of this program is to raise awareness of the proper position of car head rests, and to encourage drivers to adjust their head rest to the appropriate height.

Results / Accomplishments

This intervention was compared to a passive video presentation of the consequences of correct and incorrect head restraint, an interactive three-dimensional kinetic model showing the consequences of correct and incorrect head restraint, and a control group. The face-to-face intervention led to significantly more drivers adjusting their head restraints (28%) immediately after the intervention than the video presentation (13%), the kinetic model (11%) or the control group (12%).

About this Promising Practice

Organization(s)
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, AirCare Centre
Primary Contact
Sylvia Fockle
Research Services
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia
151 W. Esplanade
North Vancouver, BC V7M 3H9
Canada
1-800-663-3051
http://www.icbc.com/home
Topics
Community / Public Safety
Community / Transportation
Health / Prevention & Safety
Organization(s)
Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, AirCare Centre
Source
Accident Analysis and Prevention
Date of publication
Nov 1998
Date of implementation
1995
Location
British Columbia, Canada
For more details
Target Audience
Adults