Car maker shows great restraint

The French car maker has developed a "Sleep Safe" head restraint based on the HANS Device used by racing car drivers.

The device will be fitted to new Renaults and is expected to flow through to models sold in Australia as early as next year.

Sleep Safe is installed on the centre rear head restraint. Its two sides flip down to hold the child's head and body upright should they fall asleep.

It is designed for children aged six to 10 who are too big for enclosed child seats but not big enough for an adult head restraint to operate properly.

A Renault safety engineer came up with the idea after watching drivers Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella from the World Championship-winning Renault Formula One team fitting their HANS Devices.

The American-made neck supports are mandatory in V8 Supercar racing and Gold Coast driver Steve Ellery from the Triple 8 Racing team based in Brisbane swears by them.

"I've had two of the biggest accidents of anyone this year in Adelaide and at Oran Park in Sydney and I suffered relatively minor injuries," he said.

"Who knows how badly hurt I would have been without the HANS Device? I wore one last year and we didn't have a problem."

The HANS Device provides additional support to the head and neck, reducing whiplash in a front or rear impact and cushioning the head in a side impact.

Sleep Safe will be installed first in the Espace people-mover which is not imported to Australia, but will flow through to other models such as the European car of the ear, the Clio III, expected here in 2006.