VERITY NOW CALLS ON NEW NHTSA ADMINISTRATOR TO END GENDER BIAS IN VEHICLE SAFETY

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, VERITY NOW, a coalition to end gender discrimination in vehicle safety testing, released a statement in response to Dr. Steven Cliff’s confirmation as the 16th Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). 

“Despite Dr. Cliff’s statement reiterating NHTSA’s focus on making our roads safer ‘for everyone,’ the agency continues to perform vehicle crash tests that prioritize men’s safety and leave women as nothing more than an afterthought,” said VERITY NOW Co-Chair and former Congresswoman Susan Molinari. “In similar vehicle collisions, women are more likely to be injured or killed because, for decades, NHTSA has refused to use crash test dummies that accurately represent women’s bodies. Dr. Cliff has an opportunity to right this historical wrong and save women’s lives.”

“As the new NHTSA administrator, Dr. Cliff must be clear that the agency is committed to protecting all drivers and passengers by using up-to-date female dummies in all the tests that male dummies are used in. NHTSA’s own data shows clear safety disparities make it more dangerous to be a woman on the road, even though men are more likely to drive recklessly and cause crashes,” said  VERITY NOW Co-Chair and former Global Vice Chair of Public Policy for EY Beth Brooke. “While his predecessors have ignored the obvious gender discrimination in vehicle safety testing, Dr. Cliff should address this issue head on. Every day he fails to do so, women’s lives are needlessly lost.”

VERITY (Vehicle Equity Rules in Transportation) NOW is a coalition voicing concern about gender inequities in vehicle safety and raising awareness with policymakers in the U.S. who have the power to fix them. VERITY NOW strives to achieve equity in vehicle safety by educating on, and advocating for, crash testing standards that protect everybody, regardless of gender.