Cars should protect everyone.
Some people are less safe on the road than others. That’s why Volvo now are sharing more than 40 years of safety research – to make cars safer for everyone. For example, when a woman steps into a car, she assumes she’s safe. Yet in 2019, most automakers still produce cars based exclusively on data from male crash test dummies.
For this reason, women run a higher risk of getting injured in traffic than men. But not in a Volvo!
Volvo´s Accident Research Team has compiled real-world data since the 1970s to better understand what happens during a collision. What Volvo sees is that women and men appear equally in this data. Which is why we believe they should be equally represented in testing. With the E.V.A. Initiative, we are sharing the results of more than 40 years of research. By letting all competitors download this, we hope to make every car safer. Because at Volvo, we always put people first.
Development
Since the 1950s, Volvo has studied more than 43,000 cars in real-life accidents with 72,000 occupants.
As a result, this has contributed to many innovative systems such as WHIPS, SIPS, and numerous child safety products. We have now gathered more than 100 research papers, available for other brand to download. We hope this will lead to safer cars for everyone – regardless of gender and size and the car they drive.
Women are at higher risk of whiplash than men. This can be attributed to different anatomy and body strength. But not in a Volvo seat. Our Whiplash Protection System, combines a unique robust head restraint with clever seat design to protect both head and spine, with no difference in whiplash risk between men and women.
Volvo’s Side Impact Protection System - an intelligent safety shield - reduces severe chest injuries. Women are more likely to suffer a chest injury in a car crash than men due to differences in anatomy and strength. For optimal protection, we have continuously developed our car structure, safety belts and side airbags to minimise impact on the occupants. Our Side Impact Protection System, relies on an intelligent structure to boost overall safety. In fact, together with the side-impact airbag, reduces severe chest injuries by more than 50% for all passengers.
Protecting every head - women have specific protection needs, also in side-impacts. The shorter a person is, the lower in the car and closer to the steering wheel they sit – which makes the Inflatable Curtain that covers the full window a vital safety feature. In addition to SIPS, it reduces the risk of head injuries by 75%. It inflates in 1/25 second, and prevents the head from impacting the objects on the outside of the car and other elements. It was the first airbag system to offer improved protection for both front and rear seat occupants, taking side impact protection one step further.
60 years after, the 3 point Safety Belt is still the most effective lifesaver in car crashes: A car accident can happen to anyone. So far, our safety belt has saved over 1 million lives. It protects everyone - regardless of your size, gender, or body shape. However, one group is subject to more unique risks than others: pregnant women. As one of the most important inventions in road safety, our safety belt offers great protection for all types of crashes. To learn more about the mother and her unborn baby, we developed the world’s first average-sized pregnant crash test dummy. It is a computer model that makes it possible to study how the occupant moves and how the safety belt and airbag affect the woman and foetus, among other things.
Read more at Volvo Cars
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