Study Says: Car Accidents, Deadlier for Obese Drivers

Obese drivers are likelier to be in fatal car accidents than drivers with normal weight. A study suggests that the more obese a driver is the likeliness of being in a fatal car accident increases.

The study states that the risk of death during car wreck increases with the body mass index (BMI) increases. Individuals with a BMI between 30 and 35 were 20 percent more likely to die in a car accident than those with normal BMI. Morbidly obese people with a BMI of 40 and above saw their percentage of likeliness of death increase to 80 percent likelihood to die in a car crash.

Despite factoring in others elements 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 probability of dying remained unaffected.

Results from previous studies seem to correlate with the findings. A study published in 2010 saw that as the BMI of people hit more than 35, the chances of them getting killed in a car crash increased.

The most recent study, published January 21, 2013 in the Emergency Medicine Journal established that data was collected from 3,400 pairs of drivers involved in collisions between the years 1996 and 2008. Qualifiers included: cars similar in size, similar collision characteristics 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 to be analyzed and 18 percent of the people in the crash had to be considered obese.

Delving deeper into the data, researchers observed that obese people “are more likely to have medical conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, which may increase their risk of dying during a car crash.”

Researchers suggested that changes in car design may be necessary to better protect obese drivers in a car clash that is more serious than a fender-bender. A place to start would be seatbelts. In a different study, obese subjects in general protruded from their seats further than normal weight individuals after the smash. This was because there was a delay in seat-belt activation. It took the seatbelt valuable time before it could cut through the soft tissue and hold the pelvis in place, the upper body was held in place but the lower body (legs and abdomen) traveled farther from the seat.

The study found that underweight individuals also saw an increase of death during a crash, this held true mostly for men, however. If you were in a collision contact AA Accident Attorneys today! You may be eligible for compensation to cover medical costs and other damages.

 

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