Why Cars And Long Scarves Don't Mix

Cars are dangerous. There's no shortage of studies reiterating that fact, from the frequent running down of pedestrians over the last century to the not-so-obvious deaths outside of traffic crashes. It's why many of today's cars are inundated with those darn safety features we'd sacrifice if given the option. And yet another danger lurks in an unexpected place: the closet. Caution the fashionistas in your life, because your car and a scarf could be a deadly combination.

Death by scarf via the automobile became a phenomenon nearly 100 years ago, when in 1927, famous American dancer Isadora Duncan met her tragic end from the combination of the two in France. The New York Times wrote that on the night of the accident, she wore an "immense iridescent silk scarf wrapped about her neck and streaming in long folds, part of which was swathed about her body with part trailing behind."

The story continues that after a walk along the promenade in Nice, she hopped into a rented car and neither she nor the driver had realized one of the ends of her massive scarf had fallen outside of the car. The stray piece caught in the rear wheel and wound around enough that it then pulled Duncan from out of the car where she was dragged behind it for several feet. The driver stopped the car, but it was too late. When aid arrived on scene, they stated she had been killed instantly from strangulation.

Duncan's death became so well-known that similar occurrences were deemed Isadora Duncan syndrome (also referred to as long-scarf syndrome). These are typically accidental strangulations with trauma injuries sustained to the larynx and trachea (the airway), and potentially the carotid arteries (delicate mainlines of blood to the brain). Damage to either of these throughways for vital resources could starve the brain of oxygen and lead to death, like it tragically did for Duncan.

Scarf-induced deaths do still happen in modern times, and they're more likely to happen when the mode of transportation is wide open to the elements — something like an auto-rickshaw or a convertible is a dangerous place to wear a long scarf. The prevalence of modern scarf incidents actually inspired an Indian study which specifically looked at scarf deaths from 2013 to 2015 within a Level 1 trauma center. Over the nearly two years the study was conducted, 76 injuries were recorded, and approximately three of those individuals died from related injuries.

Other recent instances outside of India include two women who were maimed by scarves worn for special occasions just this month. The first, a Dallas woman, opted to wear a long dress with a scarf to a wedding. Post-wedding, with friends, they got into a car to go to dinner. Her scarf became stuck in the door, and trailed off enough to get caught in the tire. It pulled on her neck hard enough to cause a nasty friction burn across the lower part of her neck and shoulder.

A video account of the Dallas event was stitched by another woman who also had a physically scarring scarf experience. She shared that she too had been "nearly killed by fashion" when she wore the scarf part of her newly purchased dress for a gala. Caught in the seatbelt and the door of a rideshare vehicle, the woman's scarf was eventually pulled by the tire, which led to an eventual trip to the emergency room.

Both women were somewhat lucky to have only suffered deep burns to their neck and not more serious injuries, or death like Duncan. The lesson here: If you're going to wear a scarf, be vigilant about where that scarf is when you get into a vehicle.