Dr Lotta Jakobsson, safety expert at Volvo Cars, has been honoured with the Safety Engineering Excellence award by the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in The United States.

The jury’s motivation: “For her outstanding contributions in extending the biomechanics knowledge and improving vehicle safety design, Dr. Jakobsson is recognised with this award.”

Dr. Jakobsson is internationally recognised as an impact trauma biomechanics expert and has made significant and pioneering contributions both to traffic injury research and to the design of new safety systems in Volvo cars.

Driving force in whiplash protection development
Dr. Jakobsson has been the driving force in researching whiplash injuries. This includes the development of Volvo Cars’ Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), a standard safety feature of every new Volvo car. Independent studies have recently confirmed a 30-60 percent reduction of the occurrence of whiplash injuries in vehicles equipped with WHIPS.

Dr Jakobsson led the development of a new crash test dummy for this complex accident type. Dr. Jakobsson has been working for Volvo Cars since 1989. At the moment, she is leading the team of Safety Analysis & Research within Volvo Cars Safety Centre.

Ph D (Doctor of Philosophy) in 2004
Her doctoral thesis was published and presented February 2004. The thesis is entitled - Whiplash Associated Disorders in Frontal and Rear-end Car Impacts, Biomechanical Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria Based on Accident Data and Occupant Modelling.