Male-minded safety features put female drivers at risk

[Neoma]

Women are more likely to sustain injuries in an auto accident because safety features are designed more with men in mind, a study said Thursday.

Combing through a decade of data about U.S. motor vehicle accidents, three researchers found the odds of serious injury for female drivers wearing seat belts were 47 percent higher than those of men in a comparable mishap.

Previous studies have focused on differences in the way men and women drive, but the researchers — writing in the American Journal of Public Health — said another explanation could be the design of safety features.

The positioning of head restraints, for instance, fails to take into account how women's necks are different in size and strength.

Link

Old news, but pretty interesting...

[AndyTiedye]

1. This Affects Children and Short Adults of Either Sex

For short people, the "shoulder strap" is more of a neck strap. Bad.

[REP]

3. Yet another thing I like about my Japanese-built Japanese sports car

It's designed for shorter drivers (I'm 5'3" and the car fits me perfectly).

[ZombieHorde]

2. Very interesting. nt

[Gormy Cuss]

4. more on the study results from the AJPH press release...

Researchers used national crash data between 1998 and 2008 to determine the role of driver gender as a predictor of injury outcome when involved in a crash. The sample population in the study was 43 percent female, the overall average age was 36 years and 11 percent were older than 60 years. The crashes considered in this study mostly involved passenger cars (67 percent), followed by SUVs (15 percent), light trucks (11 percent) and vans (6 percent). The results from this study suggest that belted female drivers are more susceptible to injuries compared with belted male drivers when involved in a comparable motor vehicle crash. Researchers also found that belted female drivers exhibited a higher risk of chest and spine injuries compared with their male counterparts in comparable crashes.

Researchers noted “a higher risk of lower extreme injuries reported for female drivers as a result of their relatively short stature, preferred seating posture and a combination of these factors yielding lower safety protection from the standard restraint devices.”

http://www.apha.org/about/news/ajphreleases/2011/dec2011ajphrelease.htm