Air bags designed to protect people during automobile crashes can end up hurting some people instead. Researchers say that very tall or very short people are at risk of being injured by an airbag that deploys during a crash.

Researchers analyzed injury statistics from a motor vehicle crash database from 1995-2005 of 52,552 drivers and 14,732 passengers who were involved in crashes.

While most of those people weren't seriously injured, 2.5 percent of the drivers and 2.6 percent of the passengers did have serious injuries.

What researchers found was that air bags provided modest protection for front seat passengers who were between the heights of 5 foot 3 inches tall to 5 foot 11 inches tall. But air bags increased the injury risk for passengers who were shorter or taller than that.

Researchers said that the weight of the individual was not a factor in whether they were hurt or not, only their height was.