Catch up on shows with The Coast On Demand
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Obese passengers would 'blast through' airplane seat belts in a crash, American scientists have warned.
According to the New YorkTimes, safety standards have failed to keep up with America's growing waistline and aircraft engineers are still designing seats for overweight passenges.
'If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as intended during a crash,' University of Virginia Center for Applied Biomechanics principal scientist Robert Salzar told the Times. 'The energy absorption that is built into the aircraft seat is likely to be overwhelmed and the occupants will not be protected optimally.'
Dr Salzar said seat belts should also be tested to ensure that they could restrain obese travellers.
'You'd be amazed at how the large person blasts through that restraint,' he said.
A third of Americans are now classified as obese and new research predicts 42 percent will be supersizes by 2030.
Yoshihiro Ozawa, from Japanese crash dummy manufacturer Jasti Ltd. said our ballooning bellies has warned there's no data proving 'seats and seat belts are safe enough' for larger passengers.
'If we dont test with heavier dummies, we wont know if it is safe enough and there is no regulation that says they have to test for heavier.'
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
British business magnate Richard Branson has lost his latest job because of ...
Monday, April 29, 2013
Musicians have paid tribute to Country Music legend George Jones "My heart ...
Friday, April 26, 2013
This is a picture of what a BMW did to this house in Mt Eden. Nobody hurt t ...
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Two bombs have gone off at the Boston Marathon. About three hours after ...
Monday, April 15, 2013
I started giving blood last year but because of my recent prostate cancer I ...
