VERITY Now Statement on the Notice of Timeline for an NPRM on Part 572 THOR-5F

Another year, yet another delay by NHTSA on requiring equal crash tests for women. NHTSA’s mission is to protect Americans from preventable injuries and deaths on the road. Females are 73% more likely than males to be seriously injured in the same crash, and 9%-28% more likely to die.  A dummy has finally been developed that represents female physiology – the THOR 5th.  This dummy has passed all of NHTSA’s tests for biofidelity, durability, and repeatability. 

But NHTSA has announced it will not even begin the regulation process until September 2024. The agency had initially promised that would happen this month, December 2023. 

This delay is part of a pattern, and highly disappointing. NHTSA still has yet to react to the Government Accountability Office’s report from last March – a report that said the government’s 5-star safety ratings should use female dummies. 

Women are dying and being seriously injured every day because our crash testing system is not equal. Other countries are adopting this dummy. We cannot wait any longer.