Serious side impacts are more likely than frontal crashes to involve intrusion, and many of the serious injuries in side impacts occur when crash forces drive doors into occupants. Automakers use padding to reduce the forces reaching occupants, and some automakers are adding side airbags for increased energy absorption and cushioning. Side airbags designed principally to protect people's chests are available in some vehicles. Side airbags for your chest also may keep your head from hitting interior or intruding structures, but the head can be particularly vulnerable in more serious side impacts. To address this, side airbags with head protection are now becoming available.
Some head restraints are better than others.
To prevent neck injury, a restraint has to be positioned directly behind and close to the back of your head, like the fixed restraint in the top photos. If a head restraint is positioned too low and too far behind the head, as in the bottom photos, it won't do you any good. Head restraints are required in the front seats of all new passenger vehicles to keep your head from being snapped back, injuring your neck in a rear-end crash. But all head restraints aren't the same. Some are adjustable while others are fixed.