Women's Issues in Highway Safety: Summary of the Literature

A review of research literature on passenger vehicle safety that focuses on gender differences is provided. Around the world women are licensed and driving more than in the past. The result is that more women are dying in crashes, although more men than women still die in crashes every year because men drive more miles than women and tend to take more risks (speed, driving under the influence of alcohol, less frequent use of seat belts). Men's crashes are often more severe than women's, but when crash severity is controlled for, women are more likely to be killed or injured. Evidence suggests that for the most part vehicle features designed to reduce injuries (e.g., seat belts and airbags) are as effective in protecting women as men. Sometimes they are more effective. For example, improvements to head restraints may be reducing neck injury more for women than men. There also have been changes in crash testing; dummies representing shorter women are beginning to be used. One area that has received limited attention is the safety of pregnant women and their fetuses. The development of a pregnant dummy has been under way for years, and research using both real and computer-simulated pregnant dummies is exploring how factors such as seat belts, airbags, and crash severity affect a pregnant mother and fetus in a crash. As more women drive into their later years and drive more miles, it will be important to evaluate changes in crash characteristics over time as a function of age and sex as well as the types of injuries that women and men sustain.

• Record URL:
  http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/156976.aspx
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• Availability:
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• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Ferguson, Susan A
  • Braitman, Keli A
• Conference:
  • Conference on Research on Women's Issues in Transportation
  • Location: Chicago Illinois, United States
  • Date: 2004-11-18 to 2004-11-20
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 39-50
• Monograph Title: Research on Women's Issues in Transportation, Report of a Conference, Volume 1: Conference Overview and Plenary Papers
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Board Conference Proceedings
  • Issue Number: 35
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 1073-1652

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Air bags; Crash severity; Crash tests; Deployable head restraints; Dummies; Fatalities; Females; Fetus; Gender; Highway safety; Injuries; Literature reviews; Pregnant women; Seat belts; Traffic crashes; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01025839
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309099560
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 23 2006 4:30PM