Backseats more lethal than front ones during car accidents

It has been analyzed that during car accidents, backseats are now more dangerous than the front ones.

Major advances in car safety, from basic air bags and "crumple zones" to seat belts that absorb the force of impacts during a crash, have greatly reduced the likelihood of getting injured or killed while riding in the front seat but far less progress has been made protecting backseat passengers, CBS News reported.

The chances of surviving any serious car crash vary widely, depending on the nature of the collision, speed and type of vehicles involved.

But for people seated in the front, those odds have improved significantly over the last two decades as regulators started requiring automakers to install air bags. Understandably, the car industry's focus has been on better protecting riders in the front because that's where most passengers, or roughly 88 percent, sit.

For children, the back remains the safest place to ride. Children 12 and younger account for 56 percent of passengers who sit in the back of vehicles, but only 24 percent of crash fatalities, according to a recent study by the IIHS and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that reviewed U.S. accidents between 2007 and 2012.

However it's not same for the adults, for those 55 and older, even those using seat belts were more likely to die in a crash while seated in the back than in the front, according to the study.

Researchers said that was consistent with prior data showing that adults in the rear are more likely than adults in the front to sustain chest injuries. They also said there was "some evidence of an elevated risk of head and neck injuries for restrained women seated in the rear compared with the front."

Adult rear-row occupants were less likely to use seat belts, with just 70 percent of those ages 20 to 54, and 86 percent of those 55 and older using restraints, according to the study. That compares with 99 percent for infants, 96 percent for those 4 to 8 and 93 percent for 9 to 12.

If car makers have done less to enhance the safety of rear-seat passengers, they are investing big bucks in technology aimed at avoiding accidents altogether, including lane detection warning systems and automatic brakes.