IIHS Unveils New Whiplash Prevention Test That Simulates Getting Rear-Ended At 30 MPH, Rear Head Restraints Remain Untested

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced today that it is implementing a new crash test that evaluates the ability of the front seat head restraints to prevent common whiplash injuries in rear-end collisions. The IIHS has tested front head restraints for decades, but it recently discontinued that original head restraint evaluation because essentially all new vehicles were performing well in it. In the new test, the IIHS actually performs two separate tests, one at 20 mph like the old whiplash prevention test, and the other at a new, higher speed of 30 mph.

The updated test is in response to findings that occupants of good-rated vehicles were still suffering from whiplash injuries in real-world crashes based on insurance claim rates for different models. We have covered some important things to know about your headrest before, but the IIHS also stresses that proper head restraint adjustment is an integral component of the efficacy of the head restraint system in real world collisions.

The IIHS also announced the results from the first implementation of its updated whiplash prevention test, after evaluating 18 small SUVs. As a whole, the group performed relatively well, with four models scoring the highest rating of good, nine scoring the second-highest rating of acceptable, two earning the second-lowest rating of marginal, and three earning the lowest rating of poor.

The top performers were the outgoing 2025 Audi Q3 and the outgoing 2025 Toyota RAV4, as well as the 2025 and 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5, and Subaru Forester, all of which earned the highest rating of good. The majority of the vehicles tested earned acceptable ratings, which includes 2025 and 2026 Buick Encore GX, Chevrolet Equinox, Jeep Compass, Kia Sportage, Mitsubishi Outlander, Volkswagen Taos, and Volvo XC40. The 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLB also earned an acceptable rating, as did the 2024 and 2025 Honda CR-V.

The 2025 and 2026 Nissan Rogue scored a marginal rating, as did the 2025 BMW X1, while the 2025 and 2026 Ford Bronco Sport, Hyundai Tucson, and Mazda CX-50 all earned the lowest ranking of poor. Each of these models allowed for elevated measures in most of the evaluated categories, like tilting or bending force of the head relative to the neck, and subjectively, they look rather painful in the video.

In 2025, when asked why the IIHS doesn't actually perform physical rear-end crash tests, an IIHS spokesperson said that "severe rear-end crashes are relatively rare compared with lower-speed impacts. While these higher-severity crashes do occur, ones that do result in fatalities often involve commercial vehicles and are of a severity that can't be addressed by crash testing." They also cited the government's regulatory requirements, which ensure fuel system integrity, which "to some extent ensures that vehicle structures will hold up in a rear impact."

The spokesperson also said that the IIHS is a non-profit with limited resources, so it prefers to focus on the prevention of whiplash-type injuries, which are the most common injury type reported to insurance companies.

The IIHS also forgoes testing rear-seat head restraints for financial reasons, saying, "We'd be able to evaluate fewer vehicles overall if we expanded testing to other seating positions." The IIHS also recently updated its moderate front overlap crash test and did so by evaluating rear seat occupant protection in addition to front seat occupant protection, so if the tests continue to expand, there's at least an outside chance that rear seat whiplash protection will be tested at some point, too. Though the spokesperson raised a good point, "there's always an occupant in the driver seat and so focusing attention on this position in as many models as possible is going to make the biggest difference."