Road safety engineering: an effective tool in the fight against whiplash injuries

Road safety engineering can play an integral part in the prevention of whiplash injuries. While improvements to vehicle design can reduce the severity of whiplash injuries when a crash occurs, improvements to road safety can prevent whiplash-inducing crashes from occurring in the first place. Whiplash injuries are most commonly associated with rear end crashes. Unfortunately, rear end crashes are also the most common type of crash at urban signalized intersections, where the majority of crashes occur in British Columbia, Canada. The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), through the road improvement program, has been funding road improvements in order to reduce the frequency of collisions at high crash locations in British Columbia. Several road safety engineering countermeasures specifically targeted at rear end collisions have been researched and deployed. These countermeasures include simple and affordable solutions such as signal visibility enhancements, as well as complex and expensive solutions such as intersection geometric upgrades. When appropriately used, these countermeasures have proven to be extremely cost-effective in reducing the frequency of rear end collisions. Widespread application of signal visibility enhancements is now being pursued to further decrease the risk of rear end collisions and whiplash injuries. Costs are the direct cost of the ICBC portion of the investment and benefits are only those associated with reduced insurance claims over a 2-year period.