In 2019, my family experienced a head-on collision with a driver traveling the wrong way while attempting to pass a motorcycle on an uphill road. The driver’s Ford F-150 crashed directly into our vehicle, leaving my husband and son with broken bones. My daughter and I suffered severe injuries. Our seatbelts tore through our abdomens, damaging internal organs. I sustained a traumatic brain injury when my head impacted the airbag fiercely.
I questioned why the same safety devices that saved my husband and son nearly cost my daughter and me our lives. A Consumer Reports story led me on a quest to understand the incident better. I discovered our injuries were not arbitrary. Statistics show women face a 17% higher risk of fatality and a 73% greater chance of serious injury in crashes than men.
Working at a think tank focused on using data and innovative design to solve societal issues, I believed I could contribute to women’s safety solutions. A company developed ‘biofidelic’ crash test dummies that simulate the female body’s relevant anatomical differences. These dummies, representing 95% of the female population, reflect variations that affect safety in crashes.
Men benefit from stronger necks that reduce brain injuries from airbag impacts. Being generally taller and broader allows men to adapt better to current safety technologies. For women, seatbelts often do not align properly, potentially causing internal injuries. Differences in spinal column spacing explained my spinal fractures. Until 2011, crash testing did not require female dummies. Today, no American carmakers use biofidelic female dummies, as achieving a five-star crash test rating does not mandate their use.
Attempting to address this with the Biden administration fell flat. The political environment prioritized other agendas, overshadowing public safety concerns. Despite former President Biden’s tragic personal connection to car crashes, my outreach yielded no immediate policy changes. I feared the increase in electric vehicles without addressing safety biases would endanger more women.
I met with officials from the Department of Transportation, including those from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. They confirmed their crash test dummies simulate a standard 1970s-era American male. Female models fit only 5% of women, providing inadequate safety benchmarks. They placed less importance on testing with female dummies in driver seats, justifying it by claiming other technologies like automatic braking were more impactful.
The previous Trump administration released a statement supporting biofidelic dummies. However, concrete regulatory changes remained elusive. The bipartisan She DRIVES Act, introduced in two consecutive congresses, aims to address these disparities but lacks swift progress.
A wrong-way driver shouldn’t imperil families on a clear day. The government, upon recognizing flawed data costing women’s lives, should commit to solutions rather than deflect. Trust erodes when public safety is compromised. The U.S., once a beacon of innovation, now lags behind countries like Mexico and Sierra Leone in driver safety.
Hana Schank, a journalist, technologist, and policy strategist, worked as a digital expert in the Obama White House and led New America’s Public Interest Technology team.