Reportedly experts at a panel discussion at the recently held bengaluru Tech summit said the way cars are designed in india could be putting women who drive them at risk. Cynthia Srinivas, Senior Engineering Manager at Intuit said “Seat belts and airbags proved to be more deadly to women passengers than male,” and cars are primarily designed by men and are constructed to suit male physiology.
Even though data released by the government points to the fact that most fatalities in road accidents in india are men, this could be attributed to risk taking behavior and the fact that most cars are driven by men. Furthermore seatbelt in cars is designed with the average man in mind and they are made for people with the height of an average male, and the width of male shoulders. She says pregnant women, or the bust of women is not taken into account, which is the reason why many women prefer not to wear seatbelts.
When during a crash, you go forward and come back with an enormous amount of force, which has the capacity to break your neck. Men are not as adversely affected as women by this phenomenon because their neck muscles are more defined. Experts say the current seat belt design does not take this into account. She said “Women in leadership can also be more empathetic, which makes all the employees fare better in their work, not just women”.