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Obesity and traffic accidents

People with obesity are more likely to die in a road accident than the rest, the study obesity and the risk Driver of fatal injury traffic collisions During. Signed by Thomas M Rice and MoTao Zhu, University of Berkeley, and published in the British Medical Journal, the study confirms what I said a few years ago Jeff Crandall, a professor of biomechanics at the University of Virginia, to call attention to the problem of obese drivers, while opens an interesting debate on road safety of the vehicle occupants.

The authors believe that the automakers should tailor their vehicles occupants forms obese, and this can be read as the story of the chicken or the egg. Do order a society that does not evolve toward obesity is more realistic or adapt the vehicles to be protecting all the occupants?

The study is based on 57,491 road accidents between 1996 and 2008 in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System of the NHTSA. To draw conclusions, we analyzed collisions between two similar vehicles where both drivers were the only occupants died as a result of the crash. Of these, 3403 were selected pairs of conductors who knew the data on age, body mass, use of seat belts and the airbags are deployed.

Once weighted data, with a universe of drivers in that 46% had a normal mass, 33% were overweight and 18% were obese, established a risk ratio estimate for each strip of body mass index ( BMI, which is calculated by dividing the mass of the person by height squared) where the ratio of 1 would be the risk of drivers with normal BMI, which is 18.50 to 24.99 according to the standards set by the Organization World Health:

Classification BMI Risk Ratio Underweight <18.5 1.19 Average 18.50 to 24.99 1.00 Obese Type I 30.00 to 34.99 1.21 Obese Type II 35.00 to 39.99 1.51 Obese Type III ≥40,00 1.80

While drivers are underweight probability of mortality by 19% higher than drivers with normal BMI, as body mass increases the probability increases to 21%, 51% or 80% more, depending whether people talk about obese Type I, II or III, respectively.

Moreover, the study reveals that much of the fatalities obese did them wearing seat belts, because the excess fat in the pelvic area hampered the proper functioning of the passive safety device. In such cases, the poor fit of the belt produced underwater effect, so that the victims were rushed forward by the lower body, which was not properly secured.

Adapt the criteria to the reality that we

For some time now the dummies used for crash testing of vehicles come in different sizes, trying to imitate, becoming more successful, human occupants who use cars. Next to the dummy that measures 1.75 m in height and 77 kg mass is used as a dummy of 1.88 m in height and 100 kg of dough with a 95th percentile, ie, only 5% of the population it exceeds those characteristics.

Times change, and measuring instruments, too. Some will say that you have to do is ensure that our society stop overeating and, above all, that people stop eating fats and carbohydrates that burn with our daily activities. It is a point of view that you can hardly refute anything, especially if we look to the United States, where the food problem is already acute, with a third of the obese population.

Returning to the field of road safety, however, we can not ignore that the passive safety of vehicles must be adapted, by force, to this social change in order to remain effective, regardless of what the state of health of the occupants . And the interior of a vehicle, all calculated to protect the occupant in case of collision.

So every time the set of seats, backrests, headrests, seat belts and steering wheels are more complex, have more adjustment positions, in order to accommodate a larger number of disparate people. However, the study claims that such adjustments are more customizable yet. It should be borne in mind, however, that tear studied cases in 1996. In recent years, vehicles have been gaining in this field. However, this evolution is useless if users of the vehicle as we do not fit properly protect all items.