A new report by the British Osteopathic Association has revealed that 15 million drivers in the UK put themselves at risk of whiplash.

The survey was released in time to coincide with Back Care Awareness Week which took place last week. It highlights that many sit in bad positions while driving, and this could result in them suffering injury if involved in an accident.

One in ten drivers were found to have their seat reclined back too far. This stops the seatbelt from sitting in the correct position across the pelvic bone and shoulder bone respectively.

Even more people do not use their head restraint correctly to prevent whiplash. 15 million people drive in a position where their head is not close enough to the restraint, and a whopping 51% of people never adjust their head rest at all.

To help prevent serious injury in a car crash, the report stated that drivers should ensure the head rest is at the correct height, the top of the rest level with the top of the head. The seat should not be reclined back too far, and the seat belt should be in the correct position. Finally, drivers should not sit closer than 12 inches to the steering wheel, to prevent any damage from a rapidly inflating air bag.

A man from Bradford has had his whiplash injury claim rejected after a Judge decided he could not be relied upon to give truthful evidence.

Zamir Akram was involved in an accident with a van from Leeds Council back in the summer of 2006. The van crashed into his vehicle at a roundabout on Elland Road in Leeds. He claimed he suffered whiplash in the incident and went on to try and claim compensation for his injuries.

In total Mr Akram tried to claim £7,000 for damage to his vehicle, its contents and the cost of a hire vehicle. He also tried to claim around £2,000 for his whiplash injury, bringing the total in the region of £9,000.

The case ended up in court because although Leeds Council admitted liability for the accident, the strongly disputed the amount of money Mr Akram was trying to claim. They maintained that the damage Zamir alleged the vehicle had suffered was not consistent with the details of the accident.

It was also revealed that two weeks before this accident, Mr Akram had been involved in another car crash. He claimed in his medical report that he had not been injured it it, but it was made known that he had claimed £1,100 compensation for whiplash. He had also made five previous claims for personal injury resulting from accidents.

Mr Akram’s claim was thrown out by the court with the Judge claiming there were serious issues with the reliability of his testimony.

Hi, does anyone know the basic compensation for whiplash?,My hubby and i got hit from behind not so long ago,we were just ready to pull off when a car smacked into us doing roughly 25 mph,i went to the hospital just after the accident as i had a burning sensation in my neck but was told it was a normal whiplash injury,we have been to see the medical examiner this week and he said it will be roughly 6-9 months before we will be fully recovered ,i still have lower back ache and get more headaches than usual and was just wondering if anyone else on here has been in the same situation?