US EditionCrash dummies used in car safety tests are still modeled after men despite higher risks for women
- Maria Weston Kuhn, injured in a 2019 head-on crash in Ireland, missed college and founded a nonprofit advocating better crash test dummies.
- Current crash test dummies used by NHTSA, like the Hybrid III from 1978, are modeled mostly on male bodies despite women's higher injury risks.
- Senators from both parties have supported Sen. Deb Fischer's She Drives Act to require advanced female dummies in safety testing, but progress remains slow.
- Female dummies, costing about twice as much as male models, reflect anatomical differences linked to 80% more injuries in women during crashes, according to studies.
- The debate continues between upgrading existing male-based dummies and adopting new female models, with experts confident engineers will resolve testing challenges.
62 Articles
62 Articles
Women Face More Injury Risks in Car Crashes
Maria Weston Kuhn had one lingering question about the car crash that forced her to have emergency surgery during a vacation in Ireland: Why did she and her mother sustain serious injuries while her father and brother, who sat in the front, emerge unscathed? Join our WhatsApp group Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email “It […]
Women face more injury risks in car crashes. So why are test dummies modeled after men?
Maria Weston Kuhn had one lingering question about the car crash that forced her to have emergency surgery during a vacation in Ireland: Why did she and her mother sustain serious injuries while her father and brother, who sat in the front, emerge unscathed? “It was a head-on crash and they were closest to the point of contact," said Kuhn, now 25, who missed a semester of college to recover from the 2019 collision that caused her seat belt to sl…
Maine woman helps lead charge to change crash test dummy design
Women are 73% more likely to be injured in a frontal crash, yet the dummy used in vehicle tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dates back to the 1970s and is still modeled almost entirely off the body of a man.
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