GS6 Speakers

Research Director of Traffic Safety, Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI), Sweden.

Occupant norm in vehicle safety (download presentation here )
Plenary Panel 1: Pursuing Excellence in Research through Gendered Innovations

Dr Astrid Linder is Research Director of Traffic Safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) and is responsible for the development of research in crash safety and biomechanics at VTI. She has research experience in the area of crash test performing, mathematical simulations, biomechanics and test condition specifications. Astrid has a PhD. in Mechanical Engineering in the area of vehicle safety and a MSc in Engineering Physics from Sweden. 

Her PhD focused on whiplash injuries in rear impacts and dummy development and dynamic seat test related to these injuries. She coordinates the EU funded project ADSEAT, in which a finite element model of a crash test dummy of an average female is developed.

Summary of talk for Gender Summit 6 Asia-Pacific: 

Occupant diversity of both males and females should be addresses when designing and evaluating vehicle safety systems. This is currently not the case. In the crash test laboratory the average male is the norm of the crash test dummy representing the human in the crash. The female part of the population is not represented in tests performed by consumer information organizations such as the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Whiplash injuries represent the most common and costly traffic injuries to car occupants. These injuries occur in low severity collisions. Long term records shows that female occupants are less well protected than men in such collisions. Women pose a twofold injury risk compared to men. In addition, recent improvements in protective systems, for instance active head-restraints, have proven to be most beneficial to men.