The National Osteoporosis Society has issued a warning that speed bumps recently installed in Edinburgh, Scotland are putting people at risk. The group argues that the square speed bump design causes back pain especially in those suffering from osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to become brittle and susceptible to fracture.

"If you don't already have back problems, it won't be long before you do after driving over these horrendous bumps," Isobel Hare, chairman of the Edinburgh and Lothians branch of the National Osteoporosis Society told the Scotsman. "I find that driving over these square bumps is absolute agony -- so much that I am scared to go out in my car. To get a shudder up your spine when driving over the bumps is pretty awful."

About half of women and twenty percent of men over the age of fifty suffer from the disease.

June Mullen, who has suffered with osteoporosis for 30 years, said the council has not giving enough thought to disabled drivers. "There is a stretch of road around Newcraighall that really is quite vicious and there are just so many of these speed cushions," she said. "They are very difficult to negotiate and I often get a nasty jolt on the spine. Ultimately, this could really damage the vertebrae."