Studies show that death rates for women can range from 9% to 28% higher than men, and that women are more than 73% more likely to be injured in a vehicle crash than are men.

Outdated crash test standards risk leaving thousands of women, young people, elderly, and non-average-size males at risk for death and severe injury.

The U.S. government’s NCAP 5-Star Safety Rating test doesn’t require testing for women in the driver’s seat position. Even further, the current dummy being used to represent women is simply a shrunken-down male.

 

Policymakers, leaders, Members of Congress, and advocates all agree: NHTSA must change its outdated and dangerous biases.

What can you do? Sign the petition below addressed to U.S. Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, urging him to update car crash testing standards and technology — and account for women and other vulnerable groups — now!

Our Petition:

Dear Secretary Buttigieg,

Government standards for vehicle crash testing are outdated and unequal. This deadly gender bias in vehicle safety is unacceptable.

Females are not just smaller versions of males. Due to differences in physiology and driver positioning, women’s and men’s bodies behave differently in a crash. 

But our government does not equitably account for these differences in 5-star safety ratings (the New Car Assessment Program, known as NCAP). The longer we wait to act, the longer women are at risk.

NHTSA’s current NCAP 5-star rating voluntary crash test regime does not require testing female dummies in the driver’s seat. Instead, a dummy derived from the measurements of a 1970s average-sized male is used. 

People from all over the world, men and women alike, are coming together to ask the US Government to pay attention to this issue. We are asking for the following legislative and regulatory changes:

Update New Car Assessment Programs (NCAPs)

Voluntary New Car Assessment Programs (NCAPs) should immediately adopt updated crash test dummy technologies that more accurately represent multiple body types.

Update Regulatory Standards

Policymakers should define a roadmap with a timeline for regular updates of regulatory and NCAP standards.

Equitable Crash Testing

Policymakers should make immediate commitments to require equal testing with both male and female crash test devices in all seating positions.

Let 2023 be the year we turn words into action, update vehicle crash test standards and ratings, and save those who should have been treated equally all along.