Crash test dummy design failing women drivers

Women are almost twice as likely as men to be trapped in a vehicle following a car crash, a study by University Hospitals Plymouth emergency medicine consultant Tim Nutbeam and colleagues has found. Caroline Criado Perez’s book, Invisible Women, prompted the research, reporting that crash test dummies are based on the average male.

Nutbeam said the research showed “the importance of routinely publishing sex and gender disaggregated analysis”. Criado Perez pointed out the EU is passing legislation to force car manufacturers to stop discriminating against women in their safety design and called on the UK to do the same.