Posted on 8/31/2020
Almost half of American drivers are women, but crash test dummies are modeled on the average male driver. The first standardized crash dummies were in the 1970s. The dummy had a plank face and androgynous features, weighing in at 171 pounds and 5’9. The automotive industry is meant to represent an average, however research from the NHTSA shows that a woman wearing her seat belt is 73% more likely to be injured in an accident than her male counterpart. They also found that 17% of women are more likely to be killed in a car crash. A woman’s body even reacts differently from a man’s during an accident. Therefore, Toyota has recently pioneered research examining body posture and maneuvers in self-driving vehicles when passengers aren’t driving. By the mid-1990s, a group of automakers petitioned together for a female dummy, and in 2003 the NHTSA created one. This female dummy represented the smallest 5 percent of women from the mid-1970s (about the size of a 12 or ... read more