Look around from the driver's seat of your car.  If it's a recent model, you have airbags in front of you, airbags beside you, airbags above your head...in an accident, your car can almost surround with pillows of air.  Almost.  Not too protected from the back, are you?  Rear seat passengers seem particularly exposed in collisions.  This is a concern, considering that accident statistics show that, "While deaths from rear-end crashes are relatively low, rear crashes are one of the most common causes for neck injuries commonly known as whiplash," according to Edmunds.com

Don't worry.  Toyota's on the case.

Kicking Tires reports, "Toyota wants to challenge Volvo for its coveted safety crown: It's developed a new supplemental restraint system. Dubbed a world-first, the back window airbag is meant to work with the head restraints to protect passengers' heads in a rear collision."  The rear bag "deploys in the same manner side curtain airbags do, from the roof lining."

Autoblog comments, "A quick glance at micro-vehicles like the iQ shows that there is very little space between the back seat and the rear window, which means there won't be as much metal to absorb the impact of a rear collision."

In the immediate future, Toyota plans to employ the system on its tiny iQ -- a Smart Fortwo-like microcar that isn't currently sold in the U.S.

But Edmunds Inside Line thinks we can "expect to see this new airbag rolled out to other Toyota products in the future -- and copied by other automakers."

With Americans moving into smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, more of us are putting our loved ones in back seats that sit close to the rear glass of a small hatchback like the MINI Cooper, or even taking the risk ourselves in a Smart.  This development makes a lot of sense, and we expect to see it copied widely over the next few years.

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