Cargo Barriers

Cargo Barriers protect passengers in SUVs, minivans, and wagons from cargo stowed in the back area. In a crash, unrestrained cargo is liable to fly around the car, hitting passengers and causing great injury. In a crash, everything in the car weighs its own weight multiplied by the speed of the crash. Thus a 10 pound object will weigh 600 pounds in a 60 mph crash.

The pull-across mat that comes with many wagons, or the easily installed mesh or light metal pet barriers are not crash tested and will not be able to withstand the amount of force applied in a crash. These types of barriers will not protect you in a crash. A few crash tested cargo barriers will protect you; you must have them retroactively installed and you can find them here.

Documented cases of cargo-caused injuries indicate the importance of cargo barriers. For example, consider a case report of a 33 year old man who was driving a hatchback at 40mph and had unrestrained wooden planks in the cargo area (he had folded down the 2nd row seats). In the crash the planks traveled forward into the back of his vehicle seat – he died of hemorrhage secondary to an aortic dissection and ruptured spleen.

Another case report involves a six year old boy who was a rear passenger wearing a seat belt in a hatchback car involved in a high speed crash. There was computing equipment stored in the rear of the hatchback; this equipment moved forward at the time of the collision, breaking the rear seat. The six year old suffered an acute flexion injury of the throacolumbar spine resulting in fracture dislocation of the spine at the level of L2-L3. In addition he suffered a large mesenteric hematoma and a perforated intestine. He died of his injuries on hospital day number 16. His sister, who was riding in the back seat with him, suffered fracture-dislocation of cervical vertebrae 6 and 7 and was left quadriplegic. “There is no doubt that the 6-year-old boy in and his sister would have sustained considerably less significant injuries had a barrier been in place.”