We all know that being overweight is damaging to your health; however, it now seems that the lives of fat people are at risk in a more immediate way.
Obese drivers are more likely to die in car accidents than other motorists, new research has found.
A new study polished in the Emergency Medicine Journal has found that plump motorists are up to 80 per cent more likely to die in a car crash than motorists of a healthy weight.
It found that portly drivers are propelled further forward in a collision because their additional fat prevents the seatbelt from tightening immediately against the pelvis.
The US scientists who carried out the research did so by studying car accident data. They found that the more overweight the individual, the more likely they were to die in an accident. The most obese drivers (those with a BMI of above 40) are 80 per cent more likely to suffer fatal injuries in an accident than a thin person.
Drivers with a BMI of between 35 and 34 are 51 per cent more likely to be killed in a crash, while those with a BMI of between 30 and 35 carry a lower risk at just 21 per cent.
Women, it seems, are more at risk than men. Female drivers with a BMI of 40 or above are more than twice as likely to die on the roads as their male counterparts.
The authors of the research, from the University of California and the University of West Virginia, said: "Education is needed to improve seat belt use among obese people."
