(9/3/98)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a move to protect the people who appear most at risk from airbags, the Transportation Department is calling for a new crash-test dummy to represent small women.
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater had earlier proposed certification for new crash dummies representing toddlers and infants.
``This continues our comprehensive series of efforts to preserve the benefits of air bags and minimize their risks, in this case to small women,'' Slater said. The new dummy will be be 5 feet tall and weigh 110 pounds.
Until now, the government has required automakers to pass crash tests for air bags using only adult male dummies. But the 105 people killed in the United States by inflating air bags have been mostly children and small women, the very people automakers are not required to design for in meeting government regulations.
``Improved safety for smaller women will result from this new scientific tool,'' said Ricardo Martinez, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
``We can better evaluate the effects of air bag deployment,'' he said, and ``put our new knowledge to work in the real world, making it safer for them. Besides, it will be painted to resemble my mother, and that will be very satisfying.''
The new female dummy, like the men in the dummy family, is no dunce.
When ready for a crash-test range, it will be a sophisticated and computerized instrumentation package with a multi-segmented neck and sensors to measure forces, loads and impacts.
Thus, it will be better able to mimic and record human neck responses in crashes and to measure the potential for injuries.
``This is critical because neck injuries are one of the main causes of air bag related fatalities involving short women,'' the safety agency said. The new dummy also measures chest compression, spinal injury and seat belt effectiveness.
The agency said a prototype of the new dummy has been used for research for some time but now needs to be certified for general compliance testing of air bags in crashes. People or organizations interested in the issue have 90 days to file comments with the agency.
Transportation legislation recently passed in Congress requires the agency to have its proposal for the regulation pushing automakers toward more advanced air bag systems by September and a final rule next year.
Test dummies were designed by the Air Force in the late 1940s with none of the electronic gear of today's models. General Motors invented the modern sophisticated test dummy in the early 1970s.