Obese Drivers More Likely to Die in Car Collision

A latest finding reveals that obese drivers are at a higher risk of dying in car crashes when compared to people of normal weight.

This finding comes out of data from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), from 1996 to 2008 that recorded nearly 57,491 collisions in the nation.

For the study, researcher Thomas M. Rice, an epidemiologist with the Transportation Research and Education Centre of the University of California, Berkeley, considered accidents in which the size of the vehicle was the same, be it a car, truck or van. Apart from this, they also looked for collisions that had occurred between two similar two-passengers or more, where the crash impact was the primary factor causing the injury.

They collected data on the age and weight of the passengers and whether they had their seat belts on and whether the airbags deployed. The researchers followed the World Health Organization obesity category.

From the data received, they stated that those with a BMI of 40 or more were 80 percent more likely to die in an accident. The ones having a BMI of 35-40 were 51 percent more likely and the increased risk was 21 percent for those with a BMI of 30-35, reports TOI.

Compared to obese men, obese women were at a higher risk.

"Findings from this study suggest that obese vehicle drivers are more likely to die from traffic collision-related injuries than non-obese occupants involved in the same collision," the researchers were quoted as saying in Sky News.

The researchers highlight the previous findings which state that the lower body of obese people move forward during an impact before the seat belt engages the pelvis, compared with those of normal weight.

Statistics according to CDC state that nearly 37 percent of the adults in the U.S. are obese and 16.9 percent of children and adolescents are obese.

The details of the study were published Jan. 21 in the Emergency Medicine Journal.