[thechat] Heavy people and cars

[Tony Crockford]

This has been circulating lately:

CRASH TEST DUMMIES

Heavier people are more likely to be
killed or seriously injured in car accidents than lighter
people, according  to new research. That could mean car
designers will have to build in new safety features to
compensate for  the extra hazards facing overweight
passengers. In the US, car manufacturers have already had to
redesign  air bags so they inflate to lower pressures, making
them less of a danger to smaller women and children.  But no
one yet knows what it is that puts overweight passengers at
extra risk. A study carried out in  Seattle, Washington,
looked at more than 26,000 people who had been involved in car
crashes, and found  that heavier people were at far more risk.
People weighing between 100 and 119 kilograms are almost
two-and-a-half times as likely to die in a crash as people
weighing less than 60 kilograms.

Source: New Scientist


The comment that made me smile was:
 "no one yet knows what it is that puts overweight passengers at
extra risk"


Have we forgotten inertia and how mass affects force?

Oh well......

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