A NECK PROTECTOR TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a neck protector mountable to heading portions of the driver and passenger seats of motorized vehicles, for use during first aid response when required. PRIOR ART

The heading portion, provided in the seats of vehicles (automobile, bus, truck, etc.), is designed for facilitating supporting and resting of passengers by means of resting the head and neck portions at the end of long durations during the long voyages. In the present art, there are pluralities of ergonomic seat headings designed so as to be compliant to the head and neck structure of passengers.

When it is taken into consideration that device usage is increasing and that vehicle usage becomes indispensable, unfortunately there occur accidents. Pluralities of accidents result in injuries and even result in deaths. Even if the vehicle producer companies use the latest technology, they cannot prevent accidents and injuries. In the situations faced as a result of these accidents, the first aid realized by people becomes very important. However, since people do not have sufficient information about first aid and since people behave in an erroneous manner, and since injured people are tried to be brought to hospital in an uncontrolled manner, permanent diseases and disabilities, which may last for the lifetime, may occur for the injured people. The main reason for these permanent disabilities is that while the injured person is being removed from the vehicle, the neck region, which is the region where all of the nerves are passing through, is intervened in an insensible manner. Health teams fix a neck protector to the neck portion of the injured person inside the vehicle as the first response since they think that there may be any inner and external neck injury. Even if the health teams act in a sensible manner while fixing the neck protector, since the neck protector is fixed from the front side towards the back side, the neck of the injured person shall be moved for interconnecting the extensions wrapping the neck. Meanwhile, a possible erroneous movement or any external sourced vibration may lead to permanent disabilities for the injured person. In the world, 150.000 persons have paraplegia due to these erroneous first aid responses. The applicant has filed an application with application number 2010/05483 in order to provide a solution to the abovementioned problems. In this application, a neck protector is described which can be easily fixed to the neck portions of the injured people in case of an accident and which is placed by encircling the headings of vehicle seats from three sides.

As a result, the neck protector, provided in the patent application 2010/05483, will become more effective by means of the improvements provided by these new functions which are to be added. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a neck protector provided on vehicle headings, for eliminating the above mentioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a neck protector facilitating carrying of the injured person to the hospital in a safe manner by wrapping and protecting the neck portion of the injured person through the seat heading of the vehicle. In order to realize all of the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention is a neck protector assembled to the vehicle seat headings of vehicles like automobile, bus, truck and assembled to the vehicle seat headings and designed for protecting the neck portions of people during first aid response and having a body; two lateral arms extending towards the right and towards the left from lateral sides of said body; and a connection portion provided on said lateral arms. Accordingly, the present invention is characterized by comprising at least two nape flaps connected to said body from the bottom and top portions; a folding line provided between said nape flap and the body; at least one tab positioned at the vicinity of said folding line in order to fix the position of the nape flap after the nape flap is opened at a certain proportion; and at least one housing corresponding to said tab.

In a preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, in cases where a neck protector is not used, the nape flaps are provided in a folded position towards the portion of the body facing the heading.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, in cases where the neck protector is used, the lateral arms begin from the body rested onto the nape and encircle the half of the neck from the right side and encircle the other half of the neck from the left side and they are fixed to each other in the front portion of the neck by means of the connection portion. In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the tab is provided on the nape flap at the vicinity of the folding line.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the housing is provided on the body at the vicinity of the folding line.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the connection portions are positioned at the end portions of the lateral arms.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is an upper support provided on the upper side of the connection portion and embodied in a compliant form to the jaw ergonomics in order to support the jaw when the lateral arms are closed.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, there is a bottom support provided at the bottom sides of the connection portions and resting at the vicinity of the collar bone when the lateral arms are closed.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the polymeric portion where the body is embodied is made of high density and hard polymeric material. In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the polymeric portion forming the lateral arms is made of high density and flexible polymeric material in order to provide complete encircling of the neck.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the upper support is made of a softer polymer material when compared with the polymeric portion forming the body.

In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the bottom support is made of a softer polymer material when compared with the polymeric portion forming the body. In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the foam rubber portion which covers said polymeric portion is made of a foam rubber which is compliant to the neck ergonomics. In another preferred embodiment of the subject matter invention, the fabric portion which covers said foam rubber portion is made of a fabric made of a sanitary material which does not give harm to human skin. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In Figure 1 , a representative front view of the neck protector during use is given. In Figure 2, a representative rear view of the neck protector during use is given.

In Figure 3, a representative lateral view of the neck protector during use is given. In Figure 4, a representative view of the neck protector is given. In Figure 5, a representative view of the neck protector on the heading is given. In Figure 6, a representative view of the body is given. In Figure 7, a cross sectional view of the neck protector is given.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 Neck protector

12 Support portion

121 Body

122 Nape flap

123 Tab

124 Housing

125 Folding line

13 Lateral arm

131 Connection portion

132 Upper support

133 Bottom support

14 Inner surface

15 External surface

16 Fabric coating

17 Foam rubber coating 18 Polymeric portion

20 Heading

21 Support portion housing

22 Arm housing

THE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject matter neck protection system is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect in order to make the subject more understandable.

The present invention is a neck protector (10) generally comprising a support portion (12) and one each lateral arms (13) extending from the right and left edges of said support portion (12). The support portion (12) comprises a body (121 ); totally two nape flaps (122) such that there is one each nape flap on the bottom and upper edges of said body (121 ); a folding line (125) provided between said body and said nape flaps (122); at least one and preferably two tabs (123) positioned on the edge of the nape flap (122) facing the body (121 ) at the vicinity of said folding line (125) in order to fix the nape flap (122) on the body (121 ); and at least one housing (124) and preferably housings (124) at a number equal to the number of tabs (123) and wherein said tab (123) is placed and provided on the edge of the body (121 ) facing the nape flap (122).

The neck protector (10) is disposed in an embedded manner on a heading (20) provided at the seats of vehicles. On said heading (20), there is a support portion housing (21 ) wherein the support portion (12) of the neck protector (10) is disposed; and an arm housing (22) wherein the lateral arms (13) are disposed and embodied in channel form so as to extend towards the rear side of the heading (20) from the right and left edges of said support portion housing (21 ). Thus, the neck protector (10) is embedded into the heading (20) and provides to be hidden inside the outer portion of the heading (20) without making projection.

In order to provide fixation of the neck protector (10) when the neck protector (10) is wrapped onto the neck and in order to provide fixation of the neck protector (10) on the heading (20) by wrapping the heading (20) when the neck protector (10) is not used, there is one each connection portion (131 ) positioned at the end portions of the lateral arms (13); one each upper support (132) positioned on the upper edges of one of said connection portions (131 ) and seating to the jaw in case the neck protector (10) is wrapped to the neck and embodied in a compliant manner to the jaw ergonomics; and one each bottom supports (133) positioned on the bottom edge of the other connection portion (131 ) and resting onto the collar bone in case the neck protector (1 1 ) is wrapped to the neck and embodied in an economically suitable manner. The neck protector (10) comprises two contact surfaces, namely, an inner surface (14) contacting the seat heading (20) and an external surface (15) contacting the neck and head region of people. Respectively from inside towards outside, the neck protector (10) structurally comprises a polymeric portion (18), a foam rubber coating (17) compliant to the standards and wrapping said polymer portion (18) and a fabric coating (16) coating said foam rubber coating (17). The polymeric portion (18) forming the neck protector (10) skeleton is made of a flexible polymeric material having high density. By means of this, when the connection portions (131 ) are released, the lateral arms (13) move automatically forwardly, and it becomes possible to reach the lateral arms (13) without moving the injured person for connecting the neck protector (1 1 ) to the neck of the injured person. This polymeric portion (18) is coated with a foam rubber portion (17) suitable for human health and suitable to neck ergonomics. The fabric portion (16) which remains at the outermost portion is a fabric suitable for human health and which will not give harm to human health.

The lateral arms (13) and the body (121 ), provided on the neck protector (10), are embodied in whole form. The nape flaps (122), provided on the upper and bottom portions of the body (121 ), are provided in folded form towards the rear portion of the body (121 ) in cases where the neck protector (10) is not used. In this case, the nape flaps (122) and the body (121 ) are connected to each other by means of fabric coating (16). The connection portion (131 ), belonging to the lateral arms (13), may comprise Velcro fastener, snap fastener or telescopic clips. In the preferred application, Velcro fastener is used. The Velcro fastener is provided on the side of the connection portion (131 ), disposed on one of the lateral arms (13) facing the inner surface (14), and is provided on the side of the connection portion (131 ), disposed on the other lateral arm (13), facing the external surface (15). During neck protector (10) usage, the lateral arm (13) where the Velcro fastener faces the inner surface (14) is used so as to be at the bottom portion and the lateral arm (13) where the Velcro fastener faces the outer surface (15) is used so as to be at the upper portion. Thus, the Velcro fasteners are provided so as to be one above the other and they adhere to each other and they provide closing by adhering to each other by wrapping the length of the neck protector (10) completely. In the injuries occurring in accidents, first of all, the lateral arms (13), provided on the neck protector (10), are removed from the arm housings (22) provided on the heading (20) without moving the injured person. In the continuing application, the lateral arms (13) are taken from the rear side towards the front side and wrapped to the neck of the injured person, and the two lateral arms (13) are connected to each other from the connection portions (131 ). Meanwhile, the support portion (12) is removed from the support portion housing (21 ). By means of interconnection of the lateral arms (13), the upper support (132) is rested to the jaw and supports the jaw, and the bottom support (133) is rested to the vicinity of the collar bone. Thus, the downward movement of the neck is prevented. As a result, the nape flaps (122), provided on the support portion (12), are opened upwardly and downwardly from the place where they are folded. After releasing the nape flaps (122), the tabs (123) are placed to the housing (124) provided on the body (121 ) and thereby locked, and thus, together with the neck, an important portion of the head and of the backbone is protected by being supported. At the same time, the nape flaps (122) prevent the backward movement of the head. By means of the upper support (132), the bottom support (133) and the nape flaps (122), the forward-backward movement of the neck is prevented and since the lateral arms (13) wrap the whole neck, the right and left movement of the neck is prevented and the neck is fixed.

The neck protector (10) is not for single-use, and after use, the neck protector (10) can be used again by placing into the support portion housing (21 ) and into the arm housings (22) placed on the heading (20).

The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed Claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention.