Remember that post where the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) declared it would not change its current rating system? Well, one of the suggestions advocated
by consumer groups (and squelched by the NHTSA) is the creation of new crash dummies; specifically, those representing
women and children.
Well, the former is taking shape, so to speak. In Sweden, the land of Volvo, the
safety poster-car, the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and the National Road and Transport Research
Institute are currently developing a female crash test dummy.
“For neck injuries from rear-end
collisions, whiplash, the risk for women is twice as high as for men,” the road institute said in a statement. It
will be interesting to see how this development will influence safety features in the future.