Buttigieg can save women’s lives

Late one night in Michigan last January, a woman’s car stalled out on I-96. An SUV rear-ended it. The woman in the driver’s seat of the stalled car was killed. The man in her passenger’s seat was not injured. 

During the first nine months of 2021, there were over 31,000 car crash deaths in the United States. In every comparable collision, women were more likely to be killed or severely injured than men. This fact has been repeatedly studied and independently verified for decades. Secretary Buttigieg called the recent increase in traffic fatalities a “crisis,” and now the time has come for the federal government to eliminate discrimination in vehicle safety testing, specifically with crash test dummies. 

Due to differences in size, bone density, and muscle structure, women’s and men’s bodies do not respond the same way in a car crash. Additionally, because vehicles are not designed for women’s shorter legs and arms, women are generally forced to sit closer to the steering wheel than men, which puts them at greater risk for internal injuries in frontal collisions. That means a one-size-fits-all approach to vehicle safety testing is doomed to fail. 

Nevertheless, the first crash test dummy, released in 1976, was modeled after a 172-pound, 5-foot-9 male – the average size of an American man in the 1970s. The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at the time admitted the exclusive use of male dummies was a result of a limited budget and because men were driving cars more frequently than women. 

Today, the Department of Transportation acknowledges that there are more female drivers than male drivers. Yet, more than 40 years after the creation of the first crash test dummy, female dummies are still not tested in the driver’s seat for all crash safety tests. It’s time for NHTSA to ensure the government’s 5-Star Safety Ratings program is no longer based on a 1970s stereotype that women don’t drive. 

Moreover, the “female” dummy that is used in some U.S. crash tests is simply a scaled down version of the male dummy. This dated dummy does not account for women’s unique physiology, so it cannot accurately be called a “female” dummy at all. 

This gender discrimination has serious consequences. In equivalent car crashes, women are  17% more likely to die and 73% more likely to be severely injured than men. Each year 1,300 women’s lives are tragically lost – and many more are forever changed – because our government-mandated crash safety tests continue to prioritize men. 

America must do better. Crash test experts in Europe are already planning to utilize the most up-to-date female dummies in the driver’s seat for their vehicle safety tests. Women in the U.S. deserve the same basic protection. 

Recently, 66 members of Congress, led by Congresswoman Lawrence, brought this issue to Secretary Buttigieg’s attention. He has the opportunity to right this historical wrong and make clear that women deserve equal protection in crash testing, just as we do everywhere else. That means the same number and nature of tests, and the same quality of testing equipment. 

Our request is modest. We are simply asking for women’s safety to be considered equally important as men’s. 

Recently, NHTSA announced it will soon embrace a more technologically advanced and accurate version of the male crash test dummy without improving its “female” dummies or using the current dummies for women in all the same tests as the ones for men. But now they have a chance to get it right. It is time for the government to revise its crash test standards and eliminate the clear gender bias embedded within them. 

We are speaking up for the women who are severely injured in car crashes and, for the women who can no longer speak up for themselves. Requiring equal protection for women and men in crash testing is not partisan and it is not radical. In fact, it’s consistent with the gender equity goals the Biden administration has already set. By making cars safer for women, the Department of Transportation has an opportunity to make good on that promise. 

Representative Brenda Lawrence is a Democrat who represents Michigan’s 14th District. Former Representative Susan Molinari is a Republican who represented New York’s 13th and 14th Districts and serves as co-chair of VERITY NOW.