Obese Kids Face Different Car Injuries

I was a bad girl. Got a minor speeding ticket a couple months ago -- my first in over 10 years -- which landed me in drivers school last Saturday instead of the gym. After watching the crash dummies fly around in the videos, I'm looking lovingly at my seat belt now.

Interestingly, a new study reveals heavier children are more likely to injure their arms and legs in car accidents. While overweight or obese children are not more likely to be injured, their risk for sustaining a serious injury to the extremities is two and a half times greater. Even after researchers adjusted for other risky moves such as no seat belts or riding shotgun in an older car.

Researchers speculate the increased mass of a heavier child could mean a greater force of impact on the arms and legs. The way those drivers-school videos explain how your brain or internal organs come crashing into the skull or chest wall post-impact, this makes sense. But if rate of injury is similar across BMI, this article left me wondering the pattern of injury for children with lower BMIs. Are they less serious? No matter, stay safe during the rush-rush-rush holiday season, oK?