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The present study investigated the effects of the structural stiffness of the head restraint and its attachment rigidity on the biomechanical responses and related injury measures of the neck in a rear impact vehicular collision. A series of simulated rear impacts were conducted using a mid-sized male test dummy seated in a modified late-model front passenger seat on a deceleration crash sled with a FMVSS 202 pulse. Preliminary results demonstrated that a more rigid head restraint in its design and attachment produced lesser values in most biomechanical injury measures such as neck shear force, neck extension bending moment, tension-extension neck injury criterion (Nij), shear-moment neck injury criterion (Nkm), and head-torso relative extension angular displacement. This is true for a wide range of seatback recliner stiffness. This suggests that a more rigid head restraint may have a protective advantage over a more pliant one for the neck in a rear impact.