Crash dummies for women
Maria Weston Kuhn had one lingering question about the car crash that forced her to have emergency surgery during a vacation in Ireland: Why did she and her mother sustain serious injuries while her father and brother, who sat in the front, emerge unscathed? “It was a head-on crash and they were closest to the point of contact,” said Kuhn, now 25, who missed a semester of college to recover from the 2019 collision that caused her seat belt to slide off her hips and rupture her intestines by pinning them against her spine. “That was an early clue that something else was going on.” When Kuhn returned home to Maine, she found an article her grandma had clipped from Consumer Reports and left on her bed. Women are 73 percent more likely to be injured in a frontal crash, she learned, yet the dummy used in vehicle tests by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration dates back to the 1970s and is still modeled almost entirely off the body of a man.
Kuhn, who is starting law school at New York University this fall, took action and founded the nonprofit Drive US Forward. “It seems like we have an easy solution here where we can have crash test dummies that reflect an average woman as well as a man.” Senators from both parties have signed onto Fischer’s “She Drives Act,” and the transportation secretaries from the past two presidential administrations have expressed support for updating the rules. For various reasons, the push for new safety requirements has been moving at a sluggish pace. That’s particularly true in the US, where much of the research is happening and where around 40,000 people are killed each year in car crashes. The crash test dummy currently used was modeled after a 5-foot-9, 171-pound man. What’s known as the female dummy is essentially a much smaller version of the male model with a rubber jacket to represent breasts. “What they didn’t do is design a crash test dummy that has all the sensors in the areas where a woman would be injured differently than a man.” A female dummy from Humanetics equipped with all of the available sensors costs around $1 million, about twice the cost of the Hybrid used now. The shape of the neck, collarbone, pelvis, and legs, which one NHTSA study found account for about 80 percent more injuries by women in a car crash compared to men.
Such physical dummies will always be needed for vehicle safety tests, and to verify the accuracy of virtual tests. Some American automakers who argue the more sophisticated devices may exaggerate injury risks and undercut the value of some safety features such as seat belts and airbags. “You also have to be confident that the data is telling you the right things about how a real person would fare in that crash.” NHTSA’s budget plan commits to developing the female THOR 5F version with the ultimate goal of incorporating it into the testing. But there could be a long wait considering the THOR’s male version adopted by other countries is still awaiting final approval in the US. Maria Kuhn acknowledges being frustrated by the slow process of trying to change the regulations.
Crash Dummy jokes
Political debates are like NASCAR races.
Nobody really cares who wins they just come to see the crashes.
Policeman: ‘When I saw you coming round that bend, I thought, ‘Forty-five at least.”
Woman motorist: ‘Well, I always look older in this hat.’
Dad,” I wish you would let Mom drive. It is more exciting!”
Did you hear about the dummy that robbed a bank?
Police are questioning a ventriloquist who may have had a hand in it.
June 24th Birthdays
1969 – Jennifer Lopez, 1971 – Minka Kelly, 1982 – Raven Goodwin, 2001 – Mo’ne Davis
1988 – J. J. Redick, 1947 – Mick Fleetwood, 1991 – Max Ehrich, 1980 – Lionel Messi