VOLVO unveiled a new car seat designed to reduce whiplash injuries. Lotta Jakonsson, senior research engineer at the Volvo Safety Centre, said: ' Our new modified seat increases the energy absorption in a rear end collision, and any forward rebound will be significantly reduced.' Volvo would not be drawn on a launch date, or a cost.

More than half of all driver injuries are related to the neck, said Ake Nygren, Professor in Personal Injury Prevention at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, making whiplash a serious problem for fleets.