Seat Belt Safety Testing May Be Resulting in More Female Injuries During Auto Accidents: NHTSA

Researchers are urging broader use of female crash test dummies to better reflect the higher injury risks identified among women occupants in car crashes.

A new study found that women face a higher risk of overall and moderate injuries than men in auto accidents, highlighting the need for improvements to be made to address the unique safety risks faced by female drivers.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the findings on January 8, indicating that women have a 26% higher risk of injury than men, with most injuries occurring in the extremities.

Researchers suggest the disparity may stem from seat belt designs based on male body dimensions, which can result in improper fit for many female occupants. Shoulder belts may ride too close to the neck or slip off the shoulder, while lap belts can sit higher on the abdomen rather than across the pelvis, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.

The NHTSA report analyzed a combination of crash types, occupant restraint conditions and seating positions to develop 150 different statistical models for male and female drivers.

Of the 150 models, 39 showed significantly higher odds of injury for females, 81 showed no significant difference, and 30 were not significant for higher injury odds in men. Men did not have significantly higher injury odds in any model.

The findings indicated that women face:

• 46% higher injury risk in frontal crashes
• 55% higher injury risk in rollover crashes
• 62% higher injury risk for lower-extremity injuries in frontal crashes
• 128% higher injury risk to the foot and ankle in frontal crashes 

For both men and women, injury risk increased with age. Compared to the youngest age group, each subsequent age group had a higher moderate-to-severe and fatal injury risk in all crash types except rollover crashes.

For both sexes, having a body mass index of 30 or higher was frequently associated with significantly higher injury risk, especially in frontal crashes. Occupant height, however, was not significantly associated with injury risk in 86% of injuries.

“Better understanding the unique ways in which women are impacted differently in crashes than men is essential to reducing traffic fatalities.”

— Jonathan Morrison, National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator 

The results underscore the importance of the first-of-its-kind advanced female crash test dummy proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which aims to address the ongoing trend of higher injury rates in women and to more accurately account for biological differences between male and female anatomy in crash testing.

Known as the THOR-05F, the new dummy incorporates more than 150 advanced sensors and improved biofidelic design to capture crash forces and injury data in body regions that traditional test dummies have historically missed, such as the pelvis, abdomen, neck and lower limbs. 

Unlike earlier models, which were primarily scaled versions of male dummies, the THOR-05F reflects anatomical differences in female bodies, enabling more accurate assessment of how seat belts, airbags and vehicle structures interact with a wider range of occupants. Federal officials say this innovation is a long-overdue step toward modernizing safety testing and closing longstanding gaps in vehicle protection for women.

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