Do fatter Americans need obese crash-test dummies? One maker thinks so

Despite years of warnings, Americans really aren't that much into watching their weight; a third of Americans would be classified as clinically obese (meaning a body mass index of 30 or greater) if they cared to ask a doctor. Yet the auto industry still runs its crash tests with a relatively svelte lineup of dummies that mimics a somewhat outdated average. Now the maker of those dummies says it has developed a more generously proportioned model which will let automakers crash-test for those with larger waistlines. The question is: Will it really make us safer?

Humanetics, the largest supplier of crash-test dummies, started making its plus-size model available for testing at universities August. It's designed to mimic a 270-lb. man, one who carries more weight in his chest and torso; it's also working on a female version. Humanetics CEO Christopher J. O'Connell told ABC News that heavier passengers would impose different loads and stresses on safety systems; the crash-test dummy you typically see flailing in slow motion was designed to mimic the body of a median man — one that weighs 167 lbs.

There's a few issues with this idea, starting with the fact that most research into crash injuries has not shown that being overweight causes more injuries. The study that Humanetics cites from 2012 matched crash victims with their driver's license data — the only place Americans publicly state their weight outside of "The Biggest Loser" — and found that if you were dangerously obese, your chance of dying rose, by up to 78 percent for those considered morbidly obese.

Other researchers noted the same study found similar increases for those who were smaller than average, and didn't control for the age of vehicles involved in the wrecks. A European study recreated some of the results, but found a far smaller increase among vehicles built after the year 2000 — when automakers began adding more advanced safety measures like electronic traction control and side-impact air bags. O'Connor agrees the research is murky, but said to ABC he "assumes" heavier passengers face greater dangers.

The more certain truth is that death rates in passenger vehicles have been trending downward for a decade; fewer people are killed in crashes today than in 1960. In 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, more than half the 21,667 people who perished in accidents in passenger vehicles weren't wearing seat belts, and 22 percent of all fatal crashes involved a drunk driver. That's still a terrible toll from the nation's roads, but a more zaftig crash-test dummy can only do so much to help those who don't exercise some common sense first.