What safety feature sits atop a car seat to reduce whiplash in rear impacts?

A head restraint sits atop a car seat to reduce whiplash risk in rear impacts.

Often called a headrest, it is designed to limit the rearward movement of the occupant's head relative to the torso. In a rear-end collision, the seat and torso move forward before the head catches up; a properly positioned restraint helps reduce this differential motion and the resulting strain on the neck's cervical vertebrae.

Head restraints may be integrated into the seatback, fixed in position or manually adjustable. Some vehicles use active systems that move the restraint during a crash to improve its position. Correct adjustment matters: the restraint should be high enough to support the head and positioned with as little horizontal gap behind the head as practical.

A head restraint is not the same as a belt retractor, door beam or knee bolster. Those devices address different crash loads. The term “head restraint” is preferred in safety standards because its purpose is to restrain rearward head displacement, not to serve as a pillow.