Cork crash inspires US student's campaign for better car safety

Maria Kuhn visits a car testing facility during her campaign work.

A car crash in Cork which changed a US woman's life forever has inspired her to campaign for better car safety for women globally.

Maria Kuhn, 22, was in Ireland with her family during Christmas 2019 when they collided with another motorist driving on the wrong side of the road.

She discovered that the seatbelt that saved her life, also nearly killed her. Now she is determined to ensure that anatomically correct female test dummies, and more of them, are used in the testing of cars.

Maria told the Irish Examiner that the force of the collision meant part of her small intestine was punctured due to the seatbelt she was wearing in the front passenger seat.

“Because it's not designed for women,” she said. “So it didn't fit me right - it's supposed to catch your pelvic bones and stop you from moving forward that way.

Instead, it slid upwards and caught my abdomen and so the force of that pinched my intestines between my spine and the seatbelt.

“It was by far the scariest moment of my life,” Maria said of the crash.

At Cork University Hospital, tests were carried out to determine the extent of the injuries, with one nurse demanding that Maria was given a CT scan.

“At that point I couldn’t stand up anymore, this nurse knew something was seriously wrong,” she said.

More than 12 hours since the crash, Maria’s organs were leaking stomach acid and air inside her body.

After an invasive surgery, she spent a week in CUH before back to the US some time later.

There, she began working in the Senate in Washington as part of her studies. Meanwhile her grandmother had spotted an article about female dummies not being used in car testing and sent the clipping in the post.

“I was reading into it, and then when I worked in the Senate I had access to research tools and a lot of data,” she said.

Shocking statistics

Maria discovered some shocking statistics on accidents in the US; despite men being more likely to cause crashes, women are 17% more likely to die, and 72% more likely to be injured in them.

In the US, cars receive safety ratings from the National Highway Safety Transportation Association (NHSTA), undergoing a series of tests. The tests mimic a frontal collision, like the one Maria was involved in. But they are only performed using a male test dummy driver, while the female dummy passenger measures 4’11” and 49kg pounds – the average American woman today is 5’3” and 77kg.

“I had access to all these documents that showed that they've done these studies and found out that women are in a lot more danger, and they just weren't doing anything,” said Maria.

She discovered that when female test dummies were used, they were just scaled down versions of the male dummies, mostly designed in the 1970s that didn’t account for the different physiologies.

Maria found that the seatbelts and airbags designed to protect men can actually cause additional injury, or even kill, women because of the discrepancies.

“As far as I can tell, automakers are very reluctant to implement any kind of new regulations for two reasons: they're going to have to spend the money to redesign their cars, and they’re going to have to admit that they knew that women were in danger in their cars,” she said.

Furthermore, Maria explained that the cost passed to consumers if they redesign cars with improved safety standards for everyone would be approximately $1 per car.

Two years on from the crash, Maria has published several op-eds and articles about the issue which ties in with her political science and psychology studies at Columbia. She’s determined to keep telling her story so policies can be implemented.

It’s easy to read these numbers and just read them as data. But when you think about all these women whose lives have been lost, in a completely preventable way, it is just so infuriating.

Maria explained how it’s not just women that aren’t represented in US car testing, but also pregnant and obese people, children and the elderly.

“It’s just so obvious that these people have not been at the table for any of these decisions for decades,” said Maria.

“If a woman was at the table when these decisions were being made, obviously she’d insist on a dummy that looked like her, that would protect her and her friends, her sisters, and her mom - the consequences are so devastating, and predictable.” 

Here in the EU, research has shown that women are 50% more likely to be seriously injured than men in road accidents.

From July this year, new vehicle models in the EU will be required to be fitted with new safety features that will reportedly provide head-on collision protection for women and older people.