Results: Are car headrests designed as emergency escape tools

Source: snopes. Car headrests were deliberately designed to be removed so that they can be used to smash windows during emergencies. Is this claim true or false?

In April 2016, a message circulated on Facebook affirming that car seat headrests were deliberately designed to be detachable and sturdy so that they could be used to break car windows in emergencies. This "survival tip" has been around for several years and has been featured in a number of survival blogs. If you are on Facebook, have you ever seen this post being shared by site members?

While it is possible to break a car window with a removable headrest, this is an incidental application of that object rather than a deliberate one. The primary intended function of the modern car headrest was to prevent whiplash in case of accident: When Benjamin Katz filed a patent for an automobile headrest in 1921, he noted that the device could stabilize the head when it was subjected to the "jolts and irregular movements" inherent in driving an automobile. The car headrest has since gone through many changes, but these primarily focus on safety, comfort, and manufacturing, not emergency uses. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 202 does not require automakers to manufacture head restraints specifically so that they can be used to break windows in emergencies. While some can potentially be used that way, they are not designed with that specific purpose in mind. After reading question #3, does it change your previous answer in question #1?