Car Crashes More Deadly for Obese Drivers
Rachael Rettner, MyHealthNewsDaily Staff Writer
MyHealthNewsDaily
Obesity increases the risk of death during car crashes, a new study suggests.
In the study, obese drivers — those with a body mass index (BMI) between 30 and 35 — were 20 percent more likely to die during a car crash compared to normal-weight individuals.
Morbidly obese individuals — those with a BMI of 40 and above — were 80 percent more likely to die in a car crash. BMI is a ratio of weight to height and is considered an indicator of body fatness.
The results held even after the researchers accounted for factors that could influence the risk of death in a car crash, such as age, alcohol use, seat belt use, and whether or not the air bag deployed.
The findings agree with those of previous studies, including a study published in 2010 that found an increased risk of death during car crashes for people with a BMI over 35.
The new study analyzed information from 3,400 pairs of drivers (one from each vehicle) involved in a car crash between 1996 and 2008. To be included in the study, the drivers in the pair had to be driving similarly sized cars. Because the study involved pairs of drivers, characteristics of the crash, such as the severity of the crash and how long it took for medical services to arrive on the scene, would be the same for each person in the pair. About 18 percent of those in the study were considered obese.
Obese people are more likely to have medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, which may increase their risk of dying during a car crash, the researchers said.
In addition, changes in car design may be necessarily to better protect obese drivers in car crashes, the researchers said. One study found obese drivers traveled farther in their seats before their seat belts engaged in the pelvis area during a crash compared to normal-weight drivers. The delay in seat-belt activation was due to more soft tissue in the abdomen that prevents the belt from fitting close to the pelvis, the researchers said. While the legs and abdomen traveled father from the seat in obese people compared to normal- weight individuals, the upper body was held back, the researchers said.
Being underweight also increased the risk of death, but this effect was seen only in men.
The new study is published today (Jan. 21) in Emergency Medicine Journal.
Pass it on: Car crashes are more likely to be fatal for obese drivers.
Follow Rachael Rettner on Twitter@RachaelRettner, or MyHealthNewsDaily@MyHealth_MHND. We're also onFacebook&Google+.
E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Leave a Comment:
Hell why is this news?? Everything is more dangerous for fat folks...
really??? can you say inertia?? 300 pounds stopping suddenly does more damage than 150...do the math....this is such a NON story...........
A fat guy sitting behind the driver? Even worse!
Cars have so little room in them these days. Does anyone remember nice big wide full size cars back when people weren't so big? Now more people are overweight and need a bigger car but you can't get one.
Even if you have lots of airbags they still need room to inflate in order to do their job. If the person is stuffed up against everything in the car the force is going right into them.
They keep making the center console bigger, adding cup holders to the door panels all the while making the cars narrower. Death trap.
Designing cars to better fit obese people? Better to ban high fructose corn syrup from animal and human consumption. Metabolic dysfunction should be addressed. It is found in humans and confined cattle because they are not allowed to exercise. Sugar everwhere-because it is cheap to use as a filler in processed foods. If your food has a label, one doctor said, don't eat it. Real food does not need a label.
It also appears to me that many persons of size, don't use seat belts. This is not only hazardous for them, but also for their traveling companions.
Fatty Fatty 2 by 4 can't fit through the Prius door!
This will likely come at the expense of safety for normal folks that don't over-indulge.
This just in. Force equals Mass times Acceleration. This means the higher the mass of you body then under deceleration the force gets larger. More force equals more death. This has been the main theory that physics has used for thousands of years. Must be a slow news day.
Newer vehicles are safer than older ones, you can crash an old land yacht against a compact and the person in the compact will survive while the other person will have several broken bones and possible die. The fact of the matter is that fat people is irresponsible by letting themselves grow to those proportions, stop that bs of medical conditions, genetics, thyroid, waa-waa. Just sit on an airplane next to a smelly fat person that cant reach to wipe properly and you wont be sorry.
Vehicles don't need to be re designed to accommodate fat people, nothing need to be redesigned to accommodate fat people. Fat people just need to loose weigh and please at least put some baby powder between the folds, Im not hating, I just don't feel sorry for them.
Glad to know there are perfect people out here! What a relief!
So I am guessing that you never do anything irresponsible like smoke, drink or eat food that's bad for your health and you exercise regularly. I tell you give yourself a big pat on the back because there are so few perfect people these days. I have sat next to many, many people on airplanes and it's not the fat people that worry me, it's the crazy people, and believe me, skinny people can be smelly too. Can you tell them to use baby powder too?
Wow! That's a heck of theory from such a small sample. Speed of Impact? Type of collision? Airbags involved? What a piece of crap study!
Absolutely. I'm glad you said that. This article is just a way of getting us to linger here a bit longer.
I would like to say that is not exactly true. When I was heavier, the belt caught quickly and I had no issues. Maybe I didn't hit the target number they were talking about o.O..... but it is common sense. Heavier objects with enough impact travel further then a lighter object.
I am working in the middle east and I can tell you that you put together a fat arab in a 4x4 is the most deadly combination on this planet. This region has the highest death rate from car accidents in the world. They drive wayyyyyy too fast, have no driving education before getting behind the wheel, and have absolutely no sense of the consequences of their stupidity. The law here states that just the driver HAS to wear a seatbelt and there is no enforcement of that law, so why bother. I've seen children standing up in the car, children sitting on the driver's lap steering the car, hanging out the window, coming upon an accident that the landcruiser was spinning on it's roof with dead children scattered all over the highway. Obviously they all have learning disabilities!!!!
Darwinism at work, culling the herd...
Intuitively it would seem fat people would do better since they have so much more 'padding' material to cushion the blows. Guess not.
Fat people should walk. They drain our system enough already- especially down south where fat people sit around their trailer parks all day and collect welfare.
"Being underweight also increased the risk of death, but this effect was seen only in men."
So what they're really saying is that if you fall outside of the weight range that the designers calculated for then you're more likely to die in a car crash regardless if you're over or under weight.
key2joy + God has spoken = A match made in heaven
High school physics, F=MA (force = mass x acceleration or deceleration) . Or there's the old saying for the uneducated - "the bigger you are, the harder you fall". I hope tax payer dollars didn't fund this study.
What about the silent victims. The ones that can't speak but are suffering abuse everyday. Of course I'm speaking out for the shocks on those tiny cars that those big people drive. No one ever thinks of them, especially during pothole season. They are always under such pressure with the XL people baring down on them. I silently cry for them
Fat people get lower gas mileage. No one has studied that rule of physics. The advertised mileage is with a minimun of weight in the car. If you and the misses weigh four hundred pound apiece its the same as carryng 800 pounds of junk in the trunk. But no one has told them that it takes more fuel to move a heavier mass the same distance. You see families at restaurants that all three, mother, father and kid are fat, not obese but fat. Lets go one step further. Lower gas mileage means larger carbon footprint and more pollution. More pollution means more greenhouse gases and damage to the enviroment. They therefore are an enviromental hazzard.
I am sure there is a direct correlation between the obesity rate and the constant rise of gas prices through out the land. Some one should do a study
Fat Phobic people in a Fat Phobic society. Nothing in this article was helpful. Are you aware that seat belt extenders are usually purchased by FAT PEOPLE so they don't bounce around and hurt their passengers (as one person commented). What I see here is a disgrace. Shame on you. Did you report here what the damage to the body of a fat person is due to seat belt injury...NO. Thank you. That is what I would have been interested in. Be careful people...with how they are manufacturing today's foods, you could be the next FAT PERSON. If there are enough of us...well, perhaps we will be the majority and we can get people to change how our food is grown (devoid of nutrient, GMO's, added chemicals) and how are meat animals are raised (force raised on hormones and chemicals).