Today is Injury Prevention Day, a time to raise awareness around safety initiatives and avoid needless injuries. This year’s focus is on vehicle headrests and ensuring they are properly adjusted.
The campaign is spearheaded by APIL, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. As an APIL member, we are committed to seeking reforms to improve the law for injured people and allow everyone to get justice, appropriate care and fair compensation.
This year’s Injury Prevention Day is focussed on avoiding needless injuries by ensuring vehicle head restraints are properly positioned in order to prevent a whiplash injury. In 2015, it was reported that 8 in 10 personal injury claims following road traffic accidents were for whiplash, a statistic that Injury Prevention Day is hoping can be reduced through the use of a properly positioned headrest.
As part of the campaign, APIL have produced a useful infographic showing how a headrest should be positioned. Ison Harrison are encouraging people to do the #HEADRESTTEST.
Doing the headrest test it is quick and simple. As the most common injury in car accidents, whiplash is also one of the easiest to prevent with this simple technique of adjusting the headrest to fit properly.
The following precautions will help avoid injuries other than whiplash:
Wear A Seat belt
It goes without saying that the seat belt is there to protect you, but surprising numbers of people still don’t buckle up before they drive. There are some exceptions, but you can be fined up to £500 if you don’t wear a seat belt and you are supposed to.
Avoid Sitting Too Close To The Steering Wheel
If you sit too close to the wheel you are potentially making it more difficult for the airbag to inflate should you be involved in an accident. Many injuries result from drivers sitting too close to the steering wheel. It is generally recommended that you should be at least 10 inches from the steering wheel when driving.
Adjust Your Posture
Sitting up straight and avoiding slouching when driving is important, as is preventing your passengers from laying back or having their feet up on the dashboard. Your safety can be compromised if you don’t sit properly in your seat as both a driver and a passenger.
We hope that everyone will use 15th August as a day to think about what they can do to help prevent needless injury and join us in supporting APIL’s Injury Prevention Day.
