Featured Image Credit: BBC
Topics: Cars, World News
Daisy Phillipson
In a true milestone in car safety, the first ever average female crash test dummy is being created after decades of 'bias'.
Swedish engineer and researcher in motor vehicle safety, Dr Astrid Linder, is leading a team developing the first proper model that is based on the average size of a woman.
As reported by the BBC, up until now the standard crash test dummy has been based on male build and weight.
When trialing car safety for women, some companies use a smaller version of the male dummies, which are roughly the size of a 12-year-old girl.
Advert
The Women's Institute previously published a paper on the issue, stating: "Female crash test dummies do exist but they are not mandated to be used in most tests.
"A pregnant crash-test dummy was created in 1996 but testing with it is still not government mandated either in the US or in the EU.
"Women are thought to be less well protected than men.
"A study by researchers at the University of Virginia found that women wearing seat belts were 47 percent more likely than male seat belt-wearers to be seriously injured and 71 percent more likely to be moderately injured.
"A separate study found that women were 17 percent more likely to die in crashes."
After calling on the government to take action, Dr Linder and her team have stepped up to the challenge by creating the dummy, known as a 'seat evaluation tool'.
Based on the average size of a woman, the figure is 162cm (5ft 3ins) tall and weighs 62kg (9st 7lbs).
Speaking to the BBC, Linder explained: "Females are somewhat shorter and lighter than males on average.
"And then we also have differences in muscle strength, which plays a role in terms of how you respond to a crash.
"But then in addition, of course, when it comes to the interaction with the seat, we have differences in the shape of the torso and the centre of gravity of our torso and the outline of our hips and pelvis."
The clip goes on to point out that thanks to Dr Linder and her team's work, the average female crash test dummy is close to becoming a reality.
Opening up about why this has taken so long, Tjark Kreuzinger, senior manager for safety research and technical affairs at Toyota Motor Europe, told the outlet: "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'.
"I would never say that anybody does it intentionally but it's just the mere fact that it's typically a male decision – and that's why we do not have [average] female dummies."