A team of engineers from Sweden has finally developed a female crash test dummy, BBC News reported.
Until now, the most commonly used dummy has been based on the average male build and weight. As a result of these decades of male-focused testing, the lives of countless women have been lost.
The female crash test dummy designed by Dr Astrid Linder, the director of traffic safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, and her team represents an average woman’s body. The Quint delves deeper into why this could be an important milestone.
Explained | Why is the World's First Female Crash Test Dummy Significant?
1. The Evolution of Car Safety
Dummies are used by researchers, automobile, and aircraft manufacturers to determine the injuries an individual might sustain in a crash and design their safety features accordingly.
Mandates for safety features in cars started in the 1960s and 70s. Before this, most vehicles had little to no protection for drivers and passengers. The cars made before this period lacked seatbelts and airbags. As a result, between 1965 and 1973, roughly 50,000 people in the US lost their lives in car crashes every year.
Biased Male-Focused Testing
Until now the most commonly used dummy has been modeled on the average male build and weight. And even in the rare instances that a dummy was used as a proxy for women, it was a scaled-down version of the male one, which is roughly the size of a 12-year-old girl.
At 149cm tall (4ft 8in) and weighing 48kg (7st 5lb), it represents the smallest 5 percent of women by the standards of the mid-1970s. In fact, female crash test dummies are not mandated to be used in most tests.
However, the crash test dummy developed by Dr Linder's seeks to correct this. The dummy developed by her team stands at an average height of 162 cm (5 feet 3 inches) and weighs 62 kg.
Expand2. Women at Greater Risk of Injuries in Car Crashes
A series of reports over the years have highlighted that women are at a higher risk of being killed or hurt in car crashes.
In 2019, a study by the University of Virginia found that seatbelt-wearing women were 73 percent more likely to suffer serious injuries in a frontal car crash as opposed to seatbelt-wearing men.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US showed that a woman driver is 17 percent more likely than a man to be killed in a car crash.
However, that is not all. When a woman is in a car crash she is up to three times more likely to suffer whiplash injuries (a neck injury due to forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck, like the cracking of a whip) in rear impacts in comparison with a man, BBC reported, quoting US goverment data. And though whiplash is not usually fatal, it can lead to physical disabilities.
"We know from injury statistics that if we look at low-severity impacts females are at higher risk. So, in order to ensure that you identify the seats that have the best protection for both parts of the population, we definitely need to have the part of the population at highest risk represented," Dr Linder told the BBC.
Expand3. Why is this Development Crucial?
A female crash dummy is significant to the automobile industry as Dr Linder believes that it can help shape the way cars are designed in the future.
Even though women represent almost half of all drivers in the US, cars and their safety features have been primarily designed keeping men in mind.
Tjark Kreuzinger, a specialist in the field for Toyota, told BBC, “You can see that this is a bias. When all the men in the meetings decide, they tend to look to their feet and say ‘this is it’.
(With inputs from BBC and Ms Magazine.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)
Expand
The Evolution of Car Safety
Dummies are used by researchers, automobile, and aircraft manufacturers to determine the injuries an individual might sustain in a crash and design their safety features accordingly.
Mandates for safety features in cars started in the 1960s and 70s. Before this, most vehicles had little to no protection for drivers and passengers. The cars made before this period lacked seatbelts and airbags. As a result, between 1965 and 1973, roughly 50,000 people in the US lost their lives in car crashes every year.
Biased Male-Focused Testing
Until now the most commonly used dummy has been modeled on the average male build and weight. And even in the rare instances that a dummy was used as a proxy for women, it was a scaled-down version of the male one, which is roughly the size of a 12-year-old girl.
At 149cm tall (4ft 8in) and weighing 48kg (7st 5lb), it represents the smallest 5 percent of women by the standards of the mid-1970s. In fact, female crash test dummies are not mandated to be used in most tests.
However, the crash test dummy developed by Dr Linder's seeks to correct this. The dummy developed by her team stands at an average height of 162 cm (5 feet 3 inches) and weighs 62 kg.
Women at Greater Risk of Injuries in Car Crashes
A series of reports over the years have highlighted that women are at a higher risk of being killed or hurt in car crashes.
In 2019, a study by the University of Virginia found that seatbelt-wearing women were 73 percent more likely to suffer serious injuries in a frontal car crash as opposed to seatbelt-wearing men.
Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the US showed that a woman driver is 17 percent more likely than a man to be killed in a car crash.
However, that is not all. When a woman is in a car crash she is up to three times more likely to suffer whiplash injuries (a neck injury due to forceful, rapid back-and-forth movement of the neck, like the cracking of a whip) in rear impacts in comparison with a man, BBC reported, quoting US goverment data. And though whiplash is not usually fatal, it can lead to physical disabilities.
"We know from injury statistics that if we look at low-severity impacts females are at higher risk. So, in order to ensure that you identify the seats that have the best protection for both parts of the population, we definitely need to have the part of the population at highest risk represented," Dr Linder told the BBC.
She highlighted as to why men and women respond differently in a car crash. Dr Linder pointed out that females are shorter and lighter than males, on average, and they have different muscle strengths. And it is due to this very thing that they physically respond differently in a car crash.
"We have differences in the shape of the torso and the centre of gravity and the outline of our hips and pelvis," she explained.
Maria Weston Kuhn, who joined the UN’s Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety after a car crash, pointed out that the seat belt “was designed to stop a man’s forward momentum by catching his rigid hip bones. "For me, it didn’t. It slid above my hips, pinned my intestine against my spine and ruptured it," she told Ms Magazine
Why is this Development Crucial?
A female crash dummy is significant to the automobile industry as Dr Linder believes that it can help shape the way cars are designed in the future.
Even though women represent almost half of all drivers in the US, cars and their safety features have been primarily designed keeping men in mind.
Tjark Kreuzinger, a specialist in the field for Toyota, told BBC, “You can see that this is a bias. When all the men in the meetings decide, they tend to look to their feet and say ‘this is it’.
(With inputs from BBC and Ms Magazine.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)