A rare injury to a rear seat passenger: bilateral fracture dislocation of the shoulders.

Injury prevention measures in automobiles are mainly focused on the front seat passengers and driver. In the event of a head-on collision, rear seat passengers usually escape with minimal injuries. Most commonly observed injuries to rear passengers are to the head, chest wall or lower extremities. We report a case of bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders with asymmetrical fractures of the greater tuberosities in a 42-year-old man who was apparently injured in a head-on collision while travelling in a car as an unstrapped rear seat passenger. This kind of injury pattern in an unrestrained rear seat passenger is very unusual and has not been previously described. 2015 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.