|
Abstract
|
27th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV): Enhanced and Equitable Vehicle Safety for All: Toward the Next 50 Years
https://www-esv.nhtsa.dot.gov/Proceedings/27/27ESV-000337.pdf
In recent years, the issue of gender equity in real-world crash protection has been the focus of a great deal of research [ 1, 2, 3, 4]. Concerns that females may be subject to elevated risks of injury relative to their male counterparts under similar circumstances have prompted a debate over the need for a 50th percentile female dummy. Early automotive testing concentrated on crash test dummies with 50th percentile male characteristics. By the mid 1990s there was general recognition of a need to expand the family of dummies to address a wider range of the population. Initially, the use of a smaller female dummy was prompted by the introduction of frontal airbags and the need to put design controls in place to address proximity issues to the airbags. However, this was quickly followed by an appreciation of the benefits and the need for the "family of dummies" approach in side impact testing as well as in frontal testing. More recently, the possibility has been raised that some of the risk disparity between males and females may not be physiological, but may be related to vehicle preferences between males and females [5]. The present study is one in a series of investigations which seek to determine the extent to which injury outcome differences by gender are driven by different male and female preferences for vehicle size and class.
1 Kahane, C. J., (2013). Injury vulnerability and effectiveness of occupant protection technologies for older occupants and women. (Report No. DOT HS 811 766). NHTSA.
2 Bose D, Segui-Gomez M, Crandall JR. 2011. Vulnerability of female drivers involved in motor vehicle crashes: an analysis of US population at risk. Am J Public Health.
3 Forman, J., Poplin, G.S., Shaw, C.G., McMurry, T.L., Schmidt, K., Ash, J., Sunnevang, C., (2019). Automobile injury trends in the contemporary fleet: Belted occupants in frontal collisions. Traffic Injury Prevention.
4 Noh, E. Y., Atwood, J. R. E., Lee, E., Craig, M. J., (2022) Female crash fatality risk relative to Males for similar physical impacts (Report No. DOT HS 813 358). August 2022.
5 Brumbelow, M., Jermakian, J. (2021): Injury risks and crashworthiness benefits for females and males: Which differences are physiological? Traffic Injury Prevention. |