Hi all,

it may not be a myth, but more of a home made hypothesis...anyway here it is.
Say you´re standing as car number one waiting for green light in an intersection. Suddenly you see a car in the rear mirror approaching much to fast to be able to break behind you. It´s a fact that he will crash into your car in a couple of seconds. Would you and your neck be better of if you removed your foot from the break to release it? Would this let your car take the energy forward from the impact, so it would minimize the risk of you getting a whiplash injury? Or would this have no effect at all?

Best regards,

Niclas
Sweden

If anything I would say this makes the likelyhood of bad whiplash worse.

your chair jerks forwards more, imparting more momentum and a greater jerk to the spin.

There are problems with this approach - you're going to be thrown forward, possibly into oncoming traffic. That may happen anyway, but not nearly so much as if you didn't apply the brakes. So you may wind up getting hit more than once.

Your best bet is to properly adjust your poorly-named "headrests" so that they serve their actual purpose - to prevent whiplash. Pressing your head firmly back against one just before impact may actually do you some good, if you have time enough to think that through.

But I'd keep my foot on the brake to prevent further unpleasantness.