Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman caused a rear-impact crash on June 9, 2024. Police reported that he drove his Chevrolet Traverse at high speed into a Chevrolet Impala in Maryland. Fetterman, his wife and the other driver, a 62-year-old woman, were treated at the hospital and later released. All were wearing their seatbelts.

The next day Fetterman posted a video on X where he made light of the crash, holding a bag of frozen peas for his sore shoulder and a bottle of Tylenol. Meanwhile, a local reporter tracked down the garage where his mangled car was towed. 

The reporter quoted the father of the garage owner as saying, “Thank God the woman [the 62-year-old] seemed alright, but you don’t know ‘til a day later in some of those accidents.”

The man is right, especially when it comes to women and whiplash injuries.

Women face higher risk

Federal statistics show that nearly 1 in 3 reported crashes are rear impacts — more than a half million each year.

Neck sprains and strains from rear impacts are the most common injuries in U.S. auto insurance claims. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also recognizes that neck pain can alter the quality of a person’s life for months after a crash and generate huge medical bills, especially for women.

Another study found women have two times higher risk of long-lasting neck pain than men. Why? The weights of female and male heads are about the same, but women’s neck muscles are typically weaker. Our necks are also narrower and more flexible.

But car designs don’t take this into account.

Your car’s headrest should stop the backward motion, or whip, of your head in a rear-end crash. But when the federal regulation on head restraints went into effect in 2010, headrest design was based on the male test dummy.

That standard, still in effect today, uses a dummy that’s 5 feet 9 inches tall and 172 pounds with male skeletal features.

Originally built to mimic a 35-year-old male military recruit, this dummy falls short when it comes to representing women and older drivers with less robust bodies. European researchers are now promoting the use of a new female dummy in testing. 

And the IIHS is developing a computer simulation to test head restraints for a wide range of people and crash conditions.

But wouldn’t it be better if these crashes were prevented, altogether?

New standard could save lives

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill contains a provision to do just that. The new standard requires that all cars starting in model year 2029 have a more powerful forward collision warning (FCW) system.

Most current systems alert drivers and apply automatic emergency braking at low speeds, under 25 mph.

The new regulation requires these systems be effective at speeds of up to 90 mph. This change is expected to save more than 360 lives and prevent over 24,000 injuries annually.

When I heard about Fetterman’s recent crash, I thought about his reported habits of speeding and distracted driving. I wondered if Fetterman realized that by voting for the Infrastructure Bill, he could help make driving safer, especially for him and those around him. Or that his vote could even advance women’s health?

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