The answer is simple, but it seems that there are those who do not understand that “women are not small men”.
Women are significantly more likely to be injured in car accidents than men — even when they are involved in the same collision and traveling in the same vehicle. But what explains this?
The conclusion (and the question) appear in a new report, conducted by researchers from the Technical University of Graz (TU Graz), in Austria, which analyzed around 2,000 road accidents that occurred in the country between 2012 and 2024.
According to the team, When a man and a woman are involved in the same accident, the woman is 60% more likely to be injured.
Injuries are particularly common in the chest, spine, arms and legs, explained Corina Klug, project coordinator, cited by . And the risk is even greater among women over 50 and in low-speed collisions, in which women have been shown to have more than double more likely to suffer serious injuries or die compared to men.
To understand why, researchers reconstructed individual accidents using virtual human models, that is, computer simulations capable of representing the body’s behavior during a collision.
The team concluded that the difference in risk is not just due to the type of vehicle, the speed of the collision or the configuration of the accident. Nor is this difference simply explained by the fact that women travel more frequently as passengers.although this fact may increase the disparity.
In fact, the explanation will mainly lie in the differences in proportions and weight distribution between male and female bodies.
Attention: “women are not little men”
The conclusion of the study on how vehicle safety has been tested and designed over decades. Traditionally, crash tests use dummies based on the average male body in the United States in the 1970s: about 1.75 meters tall and 78 kilos.
Although manufacturers increasingly use “female” mannequins, these are often just smaller versions of male models, too light and short to represent most women. Now, “women are not little men”, reminds Klug.
The authors advocate for test dummies that better represent the average female anatomy, including wider pelvises, more developed chests, and narrower shoulders. And they also hope that certain virtual models will be used more to test different body types and positions in the vehicle.
Until then, the researchers advise occupants to correctly adjust the seat and seat belt. The passenger seat, especially when too far back or reclined, can increase the risk, as airbags and belts are not designed for non-standard positions.
