Improving safety for women requires more than a female crash-test dummy

While more men than women are killed in vehicle-crashes, women remain more likely to be seriously injured. Could current crash-testing be biased? Jessica Jermakian [as in “make”], of the “Insurance Institute for Highway Safety”, believes that the answer is “no”… “Real-world crash-scenarios often favor men: They’re driving bigger, heavier vehicles—and they’re more often behind the wheel of the striking vehicle, rather than the struck one. Technology—like ‘automatic emergency braking’—could be a big help, to prevent crashes altogether.” What about newer, more-sophisticated crash-test dummies? “We believe that better solutions exist, or are in development. One promising tool is ‘virtual crash-testing’ that could help make vehicles safer for women—and for people of all shapes and sizes. New vehicles are safer than ever—and advances in protection already have closed the gap dramatically between men’s and women’s risk of injury.” Learn more at “i-i-h-s”-dot-org; that’s “i-i-h-s”-dot-org. I’m Bob Tebo, for the “Consumer Radio Network”.