ABM Q4 - Flipbook - Page 66
FEAT U R E
TESTING THE LIMITS
Testing the limits
Milly Standing asks why vehicles and infrastructure
are letting many drivers down
O
ne thing everyone knows
when choosing a car is that
every vehicle that launches to
market has been extensively,
exhaustively tested for
safety. Images of crashtest dummies rocketing
around and slamming
against airbags have been a
staple part of the public consciousness
pretty much since the ‘Sierra Sam’ was
originally adapted from aviation to
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AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
Q4 2026
cars in the late 1960s. But in a world
seemingly obsessed with engineering
safety into every inch of a vehicle, from
airbags to ADAS, there are some glaring
omissions. Namely, anyone that does not
fit the mould of a perfectly average
male body.
News of the first ‘female’ crash test
dummy hit the headlines as recently as
May 2023, and to this day, women and
people with mobility-limiting disabilities
are not fully considered when vehicles
