Car Safety Wasn’t Designed for Women. NHTSA Says That Needs to Change.
A female crash test dummy isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s critical for real-world safety.
For decades, vehicle safety testing in the U.S. has been built around one body type: the average adult male. The standard Hybrid III crash test dummy was developed in the late 1970s, and while technology has advanced, the baseline body we design around largely hasn’t.
That matters because real people don’t all have the same anatomy.
Women are consistently injured more often than men in crashes of similar severity. That’s not because women are weaker or more fragile. It’s because our testing tools don’t adequately represent female bodies.
The New NHTSA Study Confirms What We’ve Known for Years
On January 8, 2026, NHTSA released a study showing that women have a significantly higher risk of injury than men across multiple crash types. This isn’t a subtle difference or a data anomaly.
Compared to men in similar crashes, women face:
- 46% higher injury risk in frontal crashes
- 55% higher injury risk in rollovers
- 62% higher risk of lower-extremity injuries
128% higher risk of foot and ankle injuries
Those numbers are staggering. And they’re consistent with earlier research showing women can be up to 73% more likely to be injured and 17% more likely to die in comparable crashes.
This isn’t new information. What’s new is the growing acknowledgment that the problem is systemic.
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The Problem With “Female” Crash Test Dummies
Historically, the most advanced crash test dummy used in U.S. testing was developed to approximate a 5th-percentile female. But in reality, it was just a scaled-down male dummy. Same structure. Same limitations. Fewer sensors. Less useful injury data.
Scaling down a male body does not create a female body.
Female anatomy differs in meaningful ways: pelvis shape, neck strength, spinal alignment, muscle distribution, and how forces transfer through the body during a crash. When those differences aren’t measured, they can’t be designed for.
THOR-05F: A Step in the Right Direction
That’s where the THOR-05F dummy comes in: an advanced female crash test dummy developed through a collaboration between NHTSA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and manufacturers such as Humanetics.
Unlike earlier models, THOR-05F is based on female anatomy, not a resized male frame, and is equipped with a much more advanced sensor system.
What makes it different:
- Designed around female body proportions
- Over 150 sensors to capture injury data
- Improved measurement of head, chest, pelvis, and lower-extremity injuries
This allows engineers to see how restraint systems, airbags, and vehicle structures affect female bodies in ways we simply couldn’t measure well before.
Why This Matters for Real Families
Crash test data directly influences how cars are designed - seat belts, airbags, vehicle structure, and even safety ratings that families rely on when choosing a car.
If half the population isn’t accurately represented in testing, safety systems will inevitably work better for some bodies than others.
This isn’t about politics or “checking a box.” It’s about physics, anatomy, and injury biomechanics.
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Safety Should Work for Everyone
Recognizing biological differences doesn’t divide us, iit saves lives.
Moms, daughters, sisters, friends, caregivers, passengers, and drivers all deserve protection that actually accounts for how their bodies respond in a crash. A five-star rating only matters if it reflects real people.
Safer testing leads to safer cars. And safer cars protect everyone.
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