Just opened an on-line newsletter from Confused.com ( God, I fancy the girl in the stripy jumper who does their ads ) about a device invented to reveal false whiplash claims.
tinyurl.com/685xhrv
Interesting....I have no idea if it works or if it'll be ever adopted but I'm sure the insuance industry need to do something about the problem.
Ted
|
>> I fancy the girl in the stripy jumper
Thank goodness for that, I thought it was only me! Clickety click, joooob done.
|
Here's a good working definition of a whiplash injury;
Whiplash injury: Hyperextension (over-extension) injury to the neck, often the result of being struck from behind, as by a fast-moving vehicle in a car accident. The mechanics of whiplash injury are thought to be as follows: The victim may be first pushed or accelerated forward, pushing the body forward, but the head remains behind momentarily, rocking up and back, and some muscles and ligaments may be stretched or torn. These muscles, in a reflex action, contract to bring the head forward again, to prevent excessive injury. There may be overcompensation when the head is traveling in a forward direction as the vehicle decelerates. This may rock the head violently forward, stretching and tearing more muscles and ligaments.
Not all neck injuries sustained in RTAs are whiplash as they do not all involve hyperextension of the neck. This is one of my complaints about the overuse of the term "whiplash".
The equipment mentioned in the article appears to be designed to measure pain in the patient's neck. Low levels of or absence of pain in recovery from a neck injury do not rule out whiplash but do give an indication of severity of the injury and eventual outcomes in terms of disability and suffering. These factors are probably relevant, though, in determining if someone is deserving of compensation.
However, a good, objective measure of neck pain in neck injury litigants does seem to be a very useful tool for sifting out spurious claims and gets my vote of approval.
|
whiplash detector. - Dave_
