Rethinking Crash Test Dummies: A No-Brainer

Essential Question: Why are women more likely to be injured in a car crash and how can we improve safety for women?

Standards:

• PS3C: Energy and Forces

Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

Men are more likely to be involved in a car crash than women but in accidents that involved women, women are 47% more likely to sustain an injury and 17% more likely to die. While cars in the US undergo safety and regulatory testing, by far the most common crash test dummy is modeled after a 50th percentile American male. In fact, until 2003, no female test dummy had ever been used. Even today, the only female test dummy on the market is just the male dummy scaled down to represent the smallest 5% of females. The physics of a car crash affects women and men differently because of their average size, different proportions, and body compositions, resulting in different magnitude and directions of forces. Students may consider social and cultural factors as well, for example the type of driving women do (city driving for errands, childcare, etc.) compared to men (freeway commuting). When conducting “egg drop” and other collisions experiments, consider building tasks around improving equity of car safety.