From the King Street Chronicle: Female Safety Risks Behind the Wheel

Female Safety Risks Behind the Wheel Bring Gender Disparity to the Driver's Seat

by Caroline Gammon '26, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Photo Editor

Modern innovations in vehicle safety and design have reduced the risk of fatal injury in automobile accidents.  However, not all demographics of drivers and passengers have equally benefitted from these advancements in protection, according to frontiersin.org. Specifically, female drivers and front-seat passengers are 17 percent more likely to be killed by car crashes than male occupants of the same age, according to nbcnews.com.  Moreover, approximately 1,300 women in the United States (US) die each year who otherwise would have lived if female death and injury rates were comparable to those of males, according to fischer.senate.gov. This gender disparity in car accident injury victims points to a root issue of insufficient crash testing regulations. Therefore, it is imperative for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to take action and prioritize reliable crash testing to ensure female safety behind the wheel.

The majority of licensed drivers in the US are female, according to frontiersin.org. However, women are 73 percent more likely to get seriously injured in a head-on collision than men, according to nbcnews.com. This risk is a result of standard crash test dummies in the US not anatomically representing females. The NHTSA designed the standard crash test dummy to reflect the build of the average male in the 1970s. This baseline dummy is approximately 5’9” and 171 pounds, according to apnews.com. The female dummy is 4’11” and 108 pounds with a vest strapped to its chest, essentially a shorter, lighter version of the male model, according to nbcnews.com.

Notably, the NHTSA did not formally introduce this dummy, which mimics a woman of the 5th percentile height and weight, into crash testing until 2003, according to travelersunited.org. This model is so scaled down that it can even represent just an adolescent in testing. Even today, the NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) do not perform frontal crash tests using this female model in the driver’s seat. Rather, this model often sits in the passenger’s seat or does not have a seat in the testing car at all, according to travelersunited.org.

Not only are both the male and female models outdated, but the female model's design cannot account for the biological differences between the sexes. Particularly, the shape of the neck, collarbone, pelvis, and legs differ between men and women. It is even more worrisome that these body parts account for 80 percent more injuries in women than in men in car accidents, according to apnews.com. Mr. Christopher O’Connor is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Humanetics, a technology organization and one of the world’s leading producers of crash test dummies.  He explained why the US fails to recognize the urgent need for an updated test dummy design, according to nbcnews.com.

“The car companies aren’t required to test with the new dummy, because the regulation says you only have to use the old standard, which is from 40-50 years ago,” Mr. O’Connor said, according to nbcnews.com. “So why are the car companies still using this?  Because it’s available and it’s easy.”

Humanetics has made considerable strides in designing a more anatomically accurate female crash test dummy over the past decade. Their THOR-5F model is far more representative of the average female today. Yet, the US has yet to adopt it into its required testing procedures. Additionally, the model costs around $1 million, about twice the cost of the current model, according to apnews.com.

Activists and politicians alike have pushed for new legislation surrounding safety requirements for women in the car. Ms. Maria Weston Kuhn recognized the fatal flaw in US automobile safety regulation after she and her family became victims of a car accident in 2019. Though she and her mother were in the back seat of the car, they sustained more serious injuries than her brother and father, who sat in the front row, according to apnews.com.  Ms. Kuhn founded the Drive Action Fund in March 2023 to gain legislative support and public engagement for equity in vehicle safety, according to driveactionfund.org.

Senator Debra Fischer of Nebraska reintroduced the She Develops Regulations In Vehicle Equality and Safety (DRIVES) Act in January 2025, according to fischer.senate.gov. This act would modernize legislation to require the most advanced testing dummies available. However, the Senate has not yet passed this act into law. Ms. Lorraine Martin, President and CEO of the National Safety Council, discussed the critical need for the NHTSA to implement the She DRIVES Act, according to fischer.senate.gov.

“Unfortunately on American roads, how safe you are depends on who you are,” Ms. Martin said, according to fischer.senate.gov. "We have the tools to eliminate the gap in crash fatality and serious injury risk, and the time has long since passed to employ them.”

This fatal disparity is a cause for concern not only on a national level, but also on a local level. At Sacred Heart Greenwich, at least 91 percent of the senior class and 31 percent of the junior class have their learner's permits or driver's licenses. Of them, 87 percent drive themselves and/or others to and from school each day. This significant population of young, female drivers in the Sacred Heart community is representative of the female young adult population in America at large. Therefore, it is essential that US automobile safety standards meet the reality of modern-day drivers. The NHTSA must efficiently pass legislation to make the roads safer for the majority of drivers in America. By postponing critical intervention, getting behind the wheel only poses a greater risk for women than ever.

Featured Image by Caroline Gammon '26

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