VERITY NOW, a leading coalition voice on promoting equity in auto safety, released the following statement from Catherine McCullough, a transportation policy expert and VERITY NOW coalition member, regarding Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s announcement to introduce a bill to enhance vehicle safety for women by requiring government crash testing to include both male and female test dummies in the driver seat.
“We applaud Congresswoman Holmes Norton for her commitment to addressing the blatant gender inequities in auto safety testing. Government standards for vehicle crash testing are outdated and unequal, causing thousands of women to be needlessly killed and injured every year. This deadly gender bias in vehicle safety is unacceptable.
Our coalition members are eager to work with the Congresswoman and her staff to ensure this legislation accurately assesses this gender issue in auto safety and is quickly passed into law,” said McCullough.
Other members of Congress also raised concerns regarding gender bias in crash testing include Florida’s Rep. Gus M. Bilirakis, the top Republican on the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, and Illinois’s Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.