Low‐acceleration time‐extended (LATE) events, such as evasive swerving, often precede a crash event. The inertial forces during LATE events have the potential to cause changes to the occupant’s initial state (initial posture, position, muscle tension). The objective of this study is to systematically quantify the kinematics of adult human volunteers during a simulated pre‐crash evasive swerving manoeuvre and evaluate the effect of bracing and two vehicle‐based countermeasures. A novel laboratory device was designed to expose subjects to non‐injurious loading conditions that mimic real‐world evasive swerving events. Adult subjects (n=19, age:​ 26.0 ± 6.8 years) were exposed to a series of test conditions (relaxed, braced, pre‐pretensioned seat belt, sculpted vehicle seat with and without inflated torso bolsters) while their kinematics were captured using 3D motion‐capture and muscle activity was recorded. Similar reductions in the head and lateral trunk displacement were achieved by actively bracing and by the implementation of a pre‐pretensioned seatbelt. The second countermeasure – a sculpted seat with inflatable torso bolsters – did not show similar benefits in reducing maximum lateral displacement. Differences in kinematics existed across subsequent oscillations within a given test, with the first oscillation demonstrating the largest displacement, suggesting that active neuromuscular strategies are being employed to counteract motion.