Obesity may increase the chances of survival in road crashes

(PhysOrg.com) — Overweight men have a better chance of surviving a crash, but only if they’re wearing a safety belt, according to the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

In a new study in the current issue of the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak, Brandon Schoettle and Jonathan Rupp found that belted male drivers who are obese (those with a Body Mass Index between 35 and 50) have a 22 percent lower probability of being killed if involved in a fatal crash than belted male drivers who are underweight (those with a BMI between 15 and 18.4).

However, the opposite is true for unbelted males, they say. The probability of being killed is 10 percent higher for unbelted male drivers with a BMI between 35 and 50, compared to those with a BMI between 15 and 18.4.

The UMTRI researchers analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for nearly 300,000 drivers involved in fatal crashes in the United States from 1998 to 2008—about 51 percent of whom were killed. They found that, overall, drivers who fail to wear safety belts are 2.1 times as likely to die in a fatal crash as those who are belted.

Further, their results indicate that female drivers are 1.1 times as likely to dies as male drivers. However, for women who wear safety belts, a normal BMI leads to the lowest risk of death, while both higher and lower BMIs increase the risk.

Belted female drivers with a BMI between 35 and 50 have a 10 percent higher probability of being killed in a crash than those with a normal BMI between 18.5 and 24.9. Likewise, the probability of being killed is 8 percent higher for those with a BMI between 15 and 18.4, compared to those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9.

The researchers found no statistically significant differences among the BMI categories for unbelted women drivers.

“Our findings suggest that for increasing BMI, the optimal balance between the positive effects of extra cushioning and negative effects of extra mass and momentum depends on the gender of the driver and the use of safety belts,” said Sivak, research professor and head of UMTRI’s Human Factors Division.

“At a similar BMI, men are generally heavier than women because of height differences. Therefore, a man is more likely to overload the airbag, resulting in the increase in risk with increasing BMI for unbelted men. The decrease in risk with increasing BMI for belted men is likely because the safety belt tends to prevent this overloading.”

Overall, Sivak and colleagues say their findings suggest that the designs of airbags, safety belts, knee restraints, seats and other components of occupant-restraint systems may need to be improved to better protect drivers and their passengers at both extremes of BMI.

“Doing this will likely require new tools that can be used to evaluate the ability of restraint systems to mitigate injury potential, such as new crash-test dummies and finite-element models, because current dummies and models represent normal BMI occupants,” Sivak said.

Provided by University of Michigan

From blogs.zdnet.com

Researchers create hands-free alternative to texting while driving

By Chris Jablonski

Researchers at Clemson University’s Human Centered Computing Lab (HCCL) have developed a hands-free alternative to cell phone texting while driving.

Dr. Juan Gilbert, professor and chairman at the school’s Human Centered Computing Division, and his team have created an application called VoiceTEXT, that allows drivers to speak text messages and keep their eyes on the road at the same time.

VoiceTEXT works by connecting a cell phone to an in-car hands-free system and setting it to “vocal” mode. According to Ars Technica, this action connects the phone to a central server, which can then record and send messages. The message is then transmitted as a voicemail message, an e-mail with a link to the message audio file, or transcribed using speech recognition software and sent as an SMS message. The format delivered is dependent on the status of the receiving phone. So text messages sent to the phone in “vocal” mode can be read aloud to the driver using text-to-speech software.

“You can speak to your phone and tell it to send a message to an individual. The recipient’s phone recognizes the voice as a text message and the other person is able to respond appropriately,” Gilbert said.

Ars learned from Gilbert that individual apps could be made for different phones to make activation and interfacing with the server even easier. For instance, apps can be used to upload contact data to the server, which is needed to interpret voice commands for selecting a recipient of a message.

Similar functionality is available from smartphones such as those equipped with voice SMS, or in the case of the iPhone, the Voice Control feature. However, VoiceTEXT doesn’t require any specific phone or OS to operate.

“Your cell provider would offer this as an option…we are looking to get the technology licensed by Google, Verizon, OnStar, or other service providers.” Gilbert told Ars.

While no deals have been inked yet, he believes the system is mature enough to be operational before 2011.

Gilbert and his researchers are conducting a survey on the use of VoiceTEXT. The survey page opens with a video demonstration of VoiceTEXT.

VoiceTEXT isn’t revolutionary, but is a step in the right direction and it’s working to solve a serious problem. In the U.S., texting is now more popular than calling and despite 19 statewide bans, people continue the practice. The cost to society is not inconsequential. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2008 that driver distraction is the cause of 16% of all fatal crashes and 21% of crashes resulting in an injury. Cell phone use is among the reasons for driver distraction, the agency says.