Obesity epidemic forcing safety engineers to create fatter crash test dummies

Obesity is a national epidemic. Forty-three states have rates above 25 percent, and nine of the top 10 most obese states are in the South, led by Mississippi and West Virginia, where 35.1 percent of the adult population is obese, according to The State of Obesity.

The epidemic has gotten so bad that Humanetics, the leading manufacturer of crash dummies, has to create fatter crash test dummies to better mirror the population, Kieron Monks reports for CNN. The company has a prototype that weighs 273 pounds and has a body mass index of 35.

Chris O' Connor, CEO of Humanetics, told Monks, "Obese people are 78 percent more likely to die in a crash. The reason is the way we get fat. We get fat in our middle range. And we get out of position in a typical seat."

A 2010 study from the University at Buffalo and Erie County Medical Center analyzed data from more than 150,000 car crashes between 2000 to 2005, finding that "moderately obese drivers faced a 21 percent increased risk of death, and morbidly obese drivers faced a 56 percent increased risk of death," Roberto Ferdman reports for The Washington Post. Lead author Dr. Dietrich Jehle said, "Crash test dummies have saved lives and provided invaluable data on how human bodies react to crashes, but they are designed to represent normal-weight individuals." (Read more)