What happens inside of somebody’s body when they suffer through a whiplash injury has been studied by several different researchers. Two studies I am going to talk about; one from Japan and one from the United States did video analysis of what happens to people.
The one from Japan is one where they did 90 frames per second x-ray video of the spine. They actually saw how the spine was moving. What happens is that the occupant of the vehicle stays motionless in space as the car is propelled forward underneath them. The seat is bolted to the frame of the car and that goes forward along with the car. The occupant, his body starts to low the seat back. What happens is the spine starts to elongate, becoming longer, and the researchers from the United States state that the spine actually goes three-and-a-half inches in height longer. What that does is it starts to create an S-shape curve in the neck and that damages the ligaments, the discs, as well as the facet joints, the joints in the back part of the spine.