Cervical Spine Rotation and Range of Motion: Pilot Measurements During Driving

Abstract

We observed a large degree of variability in cervical axial rotation during driving. We observed that most of the driving tasks related to stopping had increased proportion of time out of neutral rotation. Also, right-hand lane changes increased time out of neutral rotation more than left-hand lane changes. Drivers routinely adopt nonneutral head positions (on average 13% of the time); this is likely not enough to lead to injury.