Car manufacturers have made great strides in helping drivers survive crashes. They have, at the same time, extended that safety to the passenger side. We have only to look at drivers and passenger air bags, which often include side airbags, to see this.
In all this time, however, they have, by and large, ignored the back seat altogether. Statistics tells us that you have a 46% greater chance of dying in a car crash when you are riding in the back seat than if you are riding up front, even if you are wearing a seat belt at the time of that crash.
Considering the fact that children aren’t even allowed to ride up front, isn’t it time that we start paying attention to safety measures in the back seat as well?
Some strides have been made (See the 2011 Rear Inflatable Belt, for example) but we still have a long way to go.
Nationalsafety's Weblog 