WASHINGTON \u2014 For the first time ever, American car companies will soon be required to test vehicle safety using dummies that are representative of women. <\/p>\n
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday unveiled an advanced female crash test dummy \u2014 the THOR-05F \u2014 that could help close the staggering gap of higher injury rates for women than for men in certain crash scenarios.<\/p>\n
Maria Weston Kuhn, who launched the nonprofit Drive Action Fund to advocate for better car safety testing for women, experienced the statistical issue herself when she sustained life-altering injuries in a car crash several years ago<\/a>. Recent studies have found<\/a> are 73% likelier<\/a> to be seriously injured in head-on car crashes compared with men in the same crashes. And female drivers and front-seat passengers are 17% likelier to be killed than their male counterparts in the same seats.<\/p>\n But it took about 4\u00bd decades for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to approve the use of a dummy anatomically representative of the average female in terms of height, weight and body type even though advanced models \u2014 like the THOR-05F by Humanetics, a leading producer of crash test dummies \u2014 have been available for years.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile I\u2019m the first to acknowledge that this took far longer than anyone would like, it was very important to make sure that we got this right,\u201d Jonathan Morrison, the highway safety agency’s administrator, said at a vehicle safety research meeting Thursday in Washington, D.C. \u201cWe\u2019re releasing design specifications for the first-ever advanced female crash test dummies.\u201d<\/p>\n Morrison said the announcement means \u201cautomakers will be able to start purchasing the dummy and using it in tests, learning more about how it will perform before NHTSA formally adopts it for use in ratings and rule makings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a crucial step towards the full adoption of this new dummy and learning even more about how to design vehicles to better protect female drivers and passengers,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n While the THOR-05F is not expected to be used in new car safety testing until 2027 or 2028, the technical details released by the highway safety agency are a major step forward. The data will allow automakers to design safety features based on new specifications and not the current standards, which have not been updated since the 1980s. <\/p>\n In the announcement, shared first with NBC News, Duffy criticized \u201cyears of delays\u201d during previous administrations in taking this step. \u201cOur team has worked hard over the last eight months to finalize the details for this new, state-of-the-art female crash test dummy. Under the leadership of President Trump, this Department will continue to put the safety of American families \u2014 including women \u2014 first.\u201d<\/p>\n NBC News saw the THOR-05F firsthand this year at the Humanetics facility in Michigan. The dummy is outfitted with more than 150 cutting-edge sensors, some of them in the legs, where female drivers are at a nearly 80% higher risk for injury than male drivers for the same accidents, according to CEO Chris O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n The standard \u201cfemale\u201d crash test dummy in use today, known as the Hybrid III, weighs 108 pounds and is 4 feet, 11 inches tall. It was created in the 1970s and is based on the smallest 5% of American women.<\/p>\n O\u2019Connor told NBC News in April that cars are not designed for women, even though more women today hold driver\u2019s licenses than men. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you look back in history, the crash test dummy was designed around a male, and that male became the baseline,\u201d he said, adding that vehicles are being designed \u201caround a male.\u201d <\/p>\n The Transportation Department\u2019s release said the THOR-05F\u2019s \u201cshape and response in a crash are based on female bodies, which will ultimately enable better assessment of brain, thorax, abdominal, pelvic and lower leg injury risk for small female occupants. With its array of sensors, the THOR-05F helps reveal how seatbelts, air bags and vehicle structures perform with female bodies and will inform safer vehicle designs and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n The announcement Thursday will launch the regulatory process to put the new, modern female crash test dummy into service. Once the final rule is published, the THOR-05F will be considered for use in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards compliance testing.<\/p>\n Weston Kuhn, who has spent the five years since her accident advocating for better car safety testing for women, said the Transportation Department\u2019s new move could help prevent more women from being seriously injured in a crash like she was. <\/p>\n \u201cWe at Drive Action Fund are grateful for NHTSA\u2019s leadership on this critical issue,\u201d Weston Kuhn, told NBC News in a statement. She added that she looked forward to learning more about the federal agency’s deadlines for incorporating the new female dummy into testing. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is an encouraging sign.,” she said. “But we know the dummies won\u2019t do any good sitting in the storage closet, and that the car companies won\u2019t implement these changes unless mandated.”<\/p>\n O’Connor echoed her concerns, noting that his company’s female dummy is being used in crash testing in Europe and elsewhere. <\/p>\n “What is needed in the U.S.A. is a clear timeline and some urgency so that the industry has a fixed date to prepare for its introduction and avoid further delay to saving lives,” he said. <\/p>\n Sens. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who are behind the She DRIVES Act \u2014 legislation to modernize vehicle safety standards, including by using female crash test dummies \u2014 praised Thursday’s announcement. <\/p>\n “It\u2019s far past time to make these testing standards permanent,” Fischer said, “which will help save thousands of lives and make America\u2019s roads safer for all drivers.”<\/p>\n Duckworth said, “Any progress here is good, because there\u2019s simply no good reason why women are more likely to be injured or die in car crashes.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WASHINGTON \u2014 For the first time ever, American car companies will soon be required to test vehicle safety using dummies that are representative of women. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Thursday unveiled an advanced female crash test dummy \u2014 the THOR-05F \u2014 that could help close the staggering gap of higher injury rates for women <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}