As We Get Fatter, so do Crash Test Dummies

You know many of us have a bit of a weight problem when the crash test dummies are packing on the pounds so they can do a better job of representing us behind the wheel. Crash test dummies – those creepy manikin-looking things that we send slamming into walls at high-speeds so we can see what would happen to us if our positions were switched – are now at a point where they have to get “fatter” so they can better represent a human body during a car accident. Humanetics, one of the big-name makers of crash test dummies, just revealed “Thor”; a new dummy that weighs 266 pounds and apparently looks (and sits in the car) like many drivers.

They’ve had to adapt the dummies as more and more people today are considered overweight (a better sounding word than obese, which 35% of people apparently are), because the older dummies did not behave in a crash the way bigger bodies do.

I wonder if the technological age in which we live has enabled many of us to continue packing on the pounds without much of a second thought – after all, think about it – we have most everything we want within reach of our hands. We don’t really have to work for anything anymore, and maybe it’s starting to show. I think many of us are less active and are more willing to just sit around not doing much of anything at all.

What do you think? Do you think it’s a little bit sad that they’re having to make crash test dummies obese? Let us know below!

[Image via NBC News]

SOURCE: Engadget