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As the size of your car insurance bill indicates, there's been a lot of research into the mechanics of whiplash injury. The resulting active headrest technology is way cool, but problems with pain and prolonged recovery persist. ScienceDaily reports on a Swedish insurance claims study that followed 1000 whiplash car insurance claims. The Nordic researchers found that sufferers' expectations for a good or complete recovery correlated with a lower rate of pain and disability six months later– even when controlling for the severity of the pain. Mind over matter? We don't mind if it doesn't really matter. Why not keep your hopes up the next time your ABS-equipped car gets smacked by someone else? [Caveats: study enrollment was based on insurance claims, so unreported minor fender benders as well as outright fatalities are excluded, possibly skewing the results. Study was completed between 2004 – 2005 in Sweden, so results may not be applicable to you. Lack of [decent] headrests, adverse driving conditions in third world countries and other variable may increase your risk. Reading TTAC for medical advice may cause certain side effects, including persistent cynicism, nasal beverage ejection and compulsive commenting. Should symptoms persist, see your medical professional.] 
My car insurance is horrendously high.
No accidents (knock wood) or tickets (knock wood) in over a decade. Safe driver. Over age 50. Safest cars possible. My wife has also no accidents or tickets for decades. We drive car #2 very little.
I’ve done the “shop around” thing and will stick with Amica (very highly rated in Consumer Reports year after year, and among the cheapest in comparisons for my wife and I, year on year).
Previously I fired an insurance company for raising my rates year-on-year, before moving to Amica, and when I complained, they said “Michigan drivers are awful.”
Yeah, I knew that. So, why don’t you folks spend some of your billions in profits to encourage Michigan’s legislature to toughen up drivers education, instead of watching the state let it go to seed? I thought the line had gone dead. No response. So I shopped around. And fired them. I didn’t want to pay a 35% increase year-on-year.
Thanks a bunch (NOT) Michigan state legislature, for putting no-fault insurance into place decades ago. It’s a boondoggle and a rip-off.
I now pay for all and any of my own accidents, plus (despite a law mandating insurance) must pay tons of money for those folks who don’t obey the law (uninsured motorists). Plus our state is the only state in the union with virtually unlimited medical coverage for auto. Which has its up-side, I realize.
But of course, there’s no scope at all for fraud when there is a limitless supply of medical funds right? (sarcasm alert).
Colorado got smart and dumped no-fault a few years back. Sure, no-fault was slightly cheaper for a few years, but then the lawyers figured out the ways of getting more and more money out of the deal (as they always do) and now costs are out of this world.
Bottom line; if drivers are competently taught and don’t tailgate and do pay attention while driving (I know, “what a novel idea!”), whiplash injuries don’t happen because @ss-pack accidents don’t happen.
Personally I am a strong believer in researching headrest performance before buying, this was one of the major reasons I had for buying a Volvo V70R (well, that and the 300HP). If you look at the IIHS web site and dig around, you can actually find the test data for their headrest tests that shows actual neck force in their rear end simulation, it is a real eye opener. The Volvo and Saab headrests are MUCH better than any of the others and some are downright neck snapping. Seeing as this type of accident is so common, my word of advice is to research your next ride before buying.
I couldn’t agree more with Alex. I was rear ended in my Volvo by someone at a fairly decent speed (about 40 mph or so) and the WHIP system deployed. The whole seat adjusts instantly to cradle you, and let me tell you, I didn’t have a sore muscle in my body the day after or ever.
menno:
I work for one of those insurance companies. The issue with cost of insurance isn’t so much ‘(state) drivers are awful’ because accident rates have decreased nationwide. Also, the blame can’t go on the rising cost of vehicles, because property damage payouts have decreased. The major issues are the human factor, fraud and bodily injury payouts.
Insurance company profits are highly fickle. The companies have to maintain sufficent reserves to pay claims. So one year’s record profits can lead to the next year’s going out of business.
Think of the price of automobile insurance having a direct relationship with country-wide driving ability, honesty, and the cost of medical care.
In short, it ain’t about you.
Had mild whiplash many year ago from fairly low speed rear-ender in an ’82 Accord (still in my mind the best car we’ve ever owned). It hurt and hurt for days after. Anything they can do to mitigate that injury is welcome.
Insurance: remember some things about insurance, you are paying into a pot where all losses are paid for all drivers contributing to the pot. You aren’t building a personal bank balance. Usually that pot is examined at some point and losses and expenses are determined and new rates are set. When the claim results of the group go bad, premium goes up for the whole group and your little sub group will get their share. More sophisticated companies break that big group into smaller pieces and differentiate the experience of the folks that fit into that group. Some sub-groups end up paying less of an increase than others. One example is folks that have one or more accidents move into a group of folks, that well, have one or more accidents. Stats show this group tends to have more accidents in the future so will pay more. City drivers have more accidents than rural drivers, etc.
If you think insurance companies are making big bucks, think again. The business is very cyclical so some money is made in good years only to lose up to 20 to 30 cents on the dollar of income in the bad. A considerable amount of this profit is required to be held back to be liquidated at some point if required to pay claims (called policyholder surplus). A bad enough catastrophe, like a hurricane or series of hail storms and tornadoes can put a company out of business despite this surplus. Insurance is one of the most highly regulated of industries. The cost of compliance with the regulations is huge, from agent licensing to precise reporting of everything to approval of rules, rates and forms to handling and paying claims in a certain way. Not to mention the blood suckers (trial lawyers) extorting amounts out of proportion to reality after the accident. All costs big money and us the consumer are paying for it. So yeah, thank your state legislators and your insurance department for jacking up the costs.
Alex’s point reminds me that over 40 years ago my mother was rear-ended in a crash that resulted in numerous operations to her neck, and varying levels of chronic pain for decades afterwards. In those days, of course, American cars had NO head restraints on their seats (and the courts in Kansas decided that the other driver was not at fault either–that’s when we said goodbye to Dorothy and left that place).
When people say that certain car brands are totally dispensable because they offer nothing unique compared to (for example) the Japanese or the Germans, I still beg to differ. The whiplash issue informed Alex’s decisions, as it did mine–and I’ll knock on my dash having been hit from behind several times since buying our Swedemobiles.
To the insurance company apologists:
Please give me a break. Insurance companies pay hefty salaries to professionals to manage risk and make as much money as possible. They are for profit enterprises to make money and increase shareholder value. That means jacking up rates, cutting coverage and weazeling out of paying as many claims as possible.
I love capitalism and think it’s great that insurance companies make good money. However, because auto insurance is required and government rules dictate how insurance works (rules co-written by the insurance industry), they have stacked the deck in their favor.
The root cause for high insurance costs isn’t risky drivers – it’s corrupt politicians who sit in the pockets of the insurance industry.
Some jail time for company executives and politicians caught doing this might clear the air of this… eventually.
Actually, one of the biggest drivers of insurance rates is the ability of the insurance companies to make money on their reserve. When they can invest it and make 20% profits, they all compete for drivers. When they can’t make much money on it, they raise rates to make up the difference, and really don’t care that much if they lose a few.
Basically, insurance companies are really in the business of borrowing money from a pool of people and only paying it back in claims while making profits off of the interest in the meantime.
Lastly,
“Reading TTAC for medical advice may cause certain side effects, including persistent cynicism, nasal beverage ejection and compulsive commenting. Should symptoms persist, see your medical professional.”
Too true. Thanks TTAC.
That nasal beverage ejection is a killer!!!
I would feel extremely uncomfortable driving or riding in a vehicle without decent headrests.
Our socialist non-profit Saskatchewan car insurance doesn’t pay out anything for soft tissue injuries unless there’s actual evidence of damage. Sure, you could probably sit at home and complain that you can’t work and collect 90% of your base income if you really wanted to, but you can’t get anything extra out of the deal. Strangely, recovery times are about 1/3 of what they were before this system was instituted. It seems that people recover faster if you don’t pay them to say they’re hurt. Who woulda thunk it? I love our insurance system. $1800 a year for a 16 year old male to insure an ’08 Z06, provided his driving record is clean!
The Nordic researchers found that sufferers’ expectations for a good or complete recovery correlated with a lower rate of pain and disability six months later– even when controlling for the severity of the pain.
To me that smells like people who have “stiff upper lip” or “suck it up” mentality did just that and got over it. Others did not.