America's growing weight problem has forced other things to expand to keep up: CT scanners, hospital beds and patient gowns, for instance. And now, crash-test dummies have joined the list.
Humanetics is rolling out a new crash dummy: one modeling obese people. The Plymouth, Mich.-based firm already makes dummies simulating many types of humans, including newborn infants.
The new dummy will simulate a 273-pound person, with a body mass index of 35. The company created the model based on evidence that obese individuals are more likely to die in car crashes.
Additional studies indicate that obese people suffer different types of car-crash injuries than relatively lean drivers and passengers.
For example, an April 2010 paper in the journal Obesity tested the effects of car crashes on obese cadavers, finding that they were more likely to move in ways that increased thoracic and pulmonary injuries, though perhaps they were less likely to suffer head injuries.
