Muscular Stabilisation of the Head in Car Collisions

INTRODUCTION Frontal and rear-end collision with low speed are common accident mechanisms in situations with dense city traffic. During a rear-end collision the car occupant of the struck vehicle is pushed forward by the seat-back. Due to its inertia the neck is forced to an extension-flexion movement commonly called ‘whiplash’. To improve car safety mainly anthropometric test dummies (ATD) e.g. Hybrid III are used. Although there is an ongoing development of ATD, such as the BioRID P3, and of specific components like the TRID-neck studies in which dummies or cadaver models are used do not reveal neuromuscular control strategies to adjust neck stiffness and to stabilize head position. However: muscular activation is presumably essential for postural control and head stability especially during trunk linear acceleration as they occur in car collisions [1].