Volvo, Mercedes and Honda are all planning to use the technology, and other manufacturers are bound to follow suit over the course of the next few years.

Volvo's system is called Volvo City Safety, and unlike the other systems on offer it will work in low velocity collisions as well as on Motorways. The system will assess when a car is going to collide and automatically apply the brakes to the vehicle bringing it to a sudden stop but without the collision. This will prevent many whiplash injuries which are caused when a vehicle collides with the one in front causing the drivers neck to be over stretched. This is what can lead to many months of pain.

Matthew Avery, a research manager at research centre Thatcham says of the systems "It's intelligent technology and that’s what we want to see." He pointed out that 80 per cent of accidents that cause claims are the result of low-speed crashes so this sort of system will dramatically reduce the number of whiplash injuries.

There are currently around 250,000 whiplash injuries every year, and it is estimated that these safety systems could reduce them by as much as 50%.

ITN recently reported on these new safety features and 1stClaims were contacted to see if we could provide a client who had suffered a whiplash injury and who could comment on the likely benefit of these systems. ITN did not need our client for their feature in the end.

We deal in a range of claims, including whiplash claims and compensation.