The non-profit is calling for vehicle makers to improve the restraint systems in the back seats of cars.
A new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that the non-profit feels backseat safety restraints are underperforming. The organization is calling for automakers to step up and improve the restraint systems in the back seats of their vehicles.
The institute conducted a study that found that rear seat safety is not keeping up with that of front seats.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted a study, the results of which they published in a recent report. It showed that while front and back seat restraint systems have been improving, this has not been occurring at the same rate. Back seat restraint systems have not kept up with the rate of improvement seen in the front seat. This means that people belted in the back seat aren’t receiving the same level of safety as those in the front.
The research looked at the results of 117 front crashes in which there was a passenger in the backseat and who was wearing a seatbelt. In each of those cases, the back seat passenger was either seriously injured or was killed. The results found that many of these crashes could have seen improved results, such as being survivable, if the safety equipment in the backseat of the vehicles had been improved.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that many crashes involved injuries from seatbelts.
The results of the study showed that many of the crashes involved chest injuries that were caused by the force experienced from the seatbelts in the back seats. The study indicated that if force limiters had been installed in the back seat seatbelts, the injuries could have been reduced at least in part, reported the Insurance Journal. Force limiters release a certain amount of slack from the seatbelt as the amount of force applied increases.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety also examined potential benefits of upgrades such as air bags that deploy 
from the ceiling of the vehicle. It determined that these more sophisticated technologies could greatly benefit backseat passengers as they already improve the safety of passengers in the front seat.
