Thanks to Bob P.
Women have 73 percent greater odds of being seriously injured in a car crash than men. Yet the U.S. continues to use dummies based on male bodies for almost all of its crash testing – leaving women at serious risk on the road.
Although there have been countless safety advances over the years, our nation’s auto safety rules are almost entirely designed to protect a 5-foot-9-inch, 170-pound male — the most common crash-test dummy. Yet women represent about half of U.S. drivers, and studies have shown that women are injured differently in auto crashes due to variances in bone density, muscle mass, and other factors.
Despite piles of data, and years of Consumer Reports and other safety groups demanding change, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has failed to use more representative female dummies in its crash testing. But we can change that by speaking out together now!
According to government data, a female driver or front passenger who is wearing her seat belt is approximately 17 percent more likely than a male to be killed when a crash takes place — and has 73 percent greater odds of being seriously injured.
In 2003, NHTSA finally agreed to use a smaller version of the male dummy in a handful of crash tests to try to represent women. But this dummy doesn’t take into account biological differences between male and female bodies. More concerning, this “female” dummy is never the driver in any frontal crash tests — even though women are about half of U.S. drivers.
We’re expecting NHTSA to release a plan soon for future crash-test dummies, and we’re calling for an end to the bias in outdated auto safety testing. It’s beyond time for a more representative female crash-test dummy guided by scientific evidence, not by outdated gender stereotypes about who is driving.
This is a make-or-break moment in the fight for fairness and safety, so please share this email with friends and family so we can push regulators to do the right thing!
Thank you,
Meg Bohne
Consumer Reports