August 16, 2022 – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a new report, “Female Crash Fatality Risk Relative to Males for Similar Physical Impacts,” which updates a 2013 NHTSA study examining female fatality risk relative to male fatality risk in crashes with similar physical impacts.
The new report finds the estimated difference in female fatality risk compared to male fatality risk is significantly reduced in newer vehicles, starting as early as model year 2000. The newer the vehicle, the smaller the disparity. The overall gap drops from 18% to 6.3% for 2010-2020 vehicles and to 2.9% for 2015-20 vehicles.
The declines are the direct result of NHTSA’s actions adopting and strengthening Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for seat belts and air bags and launching educational campaigns to improve seat belt use. NHTSA is taking several steps to ensure that any existing disparities in like crash outcomes for men and women are eliminated.
