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2.6 In the late 1960s in the USA¹⁶ a study was carried out over a 3 year period on women factory workers who suffered neck injury from road traffic accidents. The preponderance was found to be 1.45%.

2.7 In the early 1970s in the USA, States at al.¹⁷ suggested that with a population of 200 million about 3.8 million rear end collisions occurred per annum causing neck injury in about 20% of accidents.

2.8 In the late 1970s a study was made in Switzerland¹⁸ over a 3 year period which recorded 9983 soft tissue neck injuries. 55% of these were caused by road traffic accidents. Taking into account the assertion that 60% of the working population in Switzerland was insured with a single insurer, whose books were examined, the authors concluded that the annual prevalence of soft tissue injuries to the neck caused by road traffic accidents for the entire population was just under half a percent.

2.9 Other studies in the early 1980s have suggested a prevalence in Victoria State, Australia of 0.1%.¹⁹ A lower figure of 0.01% was reported in 1986 in New Zealand.²⁰

2.10 In the late 1980s figures from a survey in Norway were interpreted to show a prevalence of about 0.2%.²¹

2.11 Assuming that the population of the UK is 56 million, the number of road traffic accidents causing whiplash injuries to the neck may be estimated at between 280,000 [at a prevalence rate of 0.5% pa] and 112,000 per annum [at 0.2% pa].

2.12 The conclusion which can be drawn from these studies is that so long as cars remain a major from of transport in England and Wales, hundreds of thousands of whiplash injuries will occur in every year. This truly is an epidemic.

2.13 A significant but small proportion of road traffic accidents result in fatality or serious injury to the spine. In the United States research has been carried out