PORTLAND, Maine — Lawmakers are urging traffic safety leaders to update crash test dummy standards in a letter aiming to advocate for women's safety behind the wheel.
For the past several years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has used what is known as the Hybrid III 5th female to represent the smallest section of the adult women population in automotive crash tests.
The dummy's design is based off of a scaled-down version of its male counterpart, according to the manufacturers website.
According to a 2023 study done by the Government Accountability Office, women on average are more likely to die or to become injured in a car crash than men.
"So it's very likely that some of the injuries are based on the car design not being adequate for where women get injured or how women get injured," Representative Chellie Pingree said.
Now, Rep. Pingree alongside several lawmakers and members of the Democratic Women's Caucus are sending along a letter to encourage the use of updated female crash dummies; something advocates argue is better reflective of women's anatomy.
The letter asks administrators to use the THOR-5F and WorldSid 5th Percentile Female crash test dummies for the New Car Assessment Program, which evaluates car design for performance and safety.
Already, 52 other members of Congress have signed the letter.
"I think for most of them, they were like, 'What? This is still an issue?' I think we're in 2024 and we have the scientific data and ability to do this," Rep. Pingree explained.
Rep. Pingree says Mainer Maria Weston Kuhn helped to bring this issue of gender disparity in crash tests to her attention.
After surviving a car crash while driving home from a family vacation back in 2019, Kuhn and her mother were left with severe injuries.
"Seatbelts are designed to stop your forward momentum by hitting against your bones. When I went forward, my seatbelt slipped up past my hipbone and instead went against my stomach and it pinned my intestines against my spine and ruptured them," Kuhn explained.
Now, Kuhn is the founder and president of Drive US Forward, a youth advocacy group fighting for the use of advanced female crash dummies in testing; especially in the drivers seat.
"And to use [female crash dummies] as equally as the men, because that's the most important part," Kuhn said. "It doesn't make any sense to me that women aren't protected in vehicles the way that we use them."
In a report released in March, NHTSA expressed that it is taking several steps to address sex-based disparities in motor vehicle crash outcomes to evaluate new safety standards.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to a media contact of NHTSA on the letter's recommendations and are awaiting a response.