As the presidential race heated up this summer, you may have missed two steps forward in car safety on Capitol Hill. These measures aim to make women’s survival rates in crashes equal to that of men, saving some 1,300 women’s lives each year.

In May, a bi-partisan group of female senators introduced a bill to update the federal 5-star safety rating system for new cars. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sponsored the She DRIVES Act to require anatomically-correct female crash dummies. The bill would also mandate that females are represented as drivers, not just passengers, in all safety tests.  

More Realistic and Equal

Our government uses scaled-down male dummies to represent women in crash tests. But women are not small men. We have significant differences in stiffness and strength in ligaments and tendons. Lap belts fit differently due to the shape and orientation of our pelvis. Our necks are weaker.

Furthermore, smaller female drivers tend to sit closer to the steering wheel and more upright to see over the dashboard. This puts us at greater risk for leg and internal injuries. All this adds up to a bias in testing that could be eliminated by the She DRIVES Act, if passed.

Currently, only an “ideal male” dummy, standing 5’9” and weighing 172 pounds, is tested in the driver’s seat in frontal and side impact crashes. Using a female dummy is optional.

Yes, optional. As in the lives of your mom, wife, daughter, and sister. But will the automotive industry care about a new mandate?

The government first designed the 5-star safety rating system in the mid-1970s to incentivize car makers to make safer vehicles. Manufacturers like to boast about ratings and therefore want to earn more stars. So, if earning more stars means car makers must make vehicles safer for women — then history suggests they will.

Broader Pressure

In July, the Senate Appropriations Committee published a report echoing the senators’ call for equality — though its wording is rather soft. “The Committee encourages [my emphasis] NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] to implement the most advanced anthropomorphic female test dummies …”

Behind this latest push for female equity is the nonprofit VERITY (Vehicle Equity Rules in Transportation) NOW. The female-led group strives to achieve equality in vehicle safety by advocating for standards that nix the inherent biases in testing. Focusing on the under-represented, including women and seniors, this advocacy group promotes more representative testing and updated regulations.

Reform vs. Revolutionary Change

I applaud these new efforts to reform our nation’s outdated new car testing program. But it won’t be enough for the U.S. to reclaim its spot as the world leader in car safety.

For that, our nation needs to recognize that using real crash data — involving people of all shapes, and sizes — to rate cars would save more lives than lab-controlled tests with dummies. That data already exists in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and it’s the basis for my Auto Grades, the only car safety rating system that personalizes recommendations based on gender and age.

The U.S. needs to innovate and not iterate on its 1970s-era car safety system.

(This blog appeared as an opinion piece in Ahwatukee Foothill News.)