Children are less likely to suffer from whiplash claims
The strength of a six year olds spine is only around 25% of the strength of adults, so therefore it is surprising that the amount of children who claim for whiplash injury is considerably low, a study has shown.
The answer to this may lie in factors such as seating in cars. Children tend to ride in the back of cars, which are seen as generally safer than the front seats. The back seats also have reduced elasticity and smaller backrests, which are specifically designed to reduce the potential injury in low speed rear impact crash.
Children also have a greater range of spinal motion and generally also have less history of injuries or degenerative disease, which can badly affect the outcome of a rear impact, and any injuries that occur.
The survey looked at 49 out of 105 patients that were recorded with whiplash injuries. 47% of these patients were over 12 years old. Forty of these were ‘grade 1’ or severe cases, which took an average of 19.7 days to recover, with the rest reaching recovery in 6.4 days.
The study concluded that whiplash injuries and whiplash claims are more likely to occur when the child hits puberty, probably as a result of physiological changes that they child is undergoing.
Updated on 8/26/2008