She DRIVES Act

She Develops Regulations In Vehicle Equality and Safety Act or the She DRIVES Act

This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to revise motor vehicle safety standards to require the use of certain anthropomorphic test devices (i.e., crash test dummies) and testing on female crash test dummies.

Specifically, DOT must issue final rules to revise the current testing regulations to include specific adult male and adult female frontal impact and side impact crash test dummies.

The final rules must establish or update the testing injury criteria based on real-world injuries and the greatest potential to increase safety. The injury criteria must include head, neck, chest, abdomen, pelvis, upper leg, and lower leg criteria for the crash test dummies.

The final rules must also establish crashworthiness frontal and side impact tests for adult female occupants in all front seating positions that are currently tested for adult male occupants (as of the date of the bill's enactment).

Further, DOT must promulgate a final decision notice to update the testing procedures for the New Car Assessment Program of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to require the use of these crash test dummies for frontal and side impact crashworthiness testing.

Finally, DOT must submit reports to Congress that, among other things, identify timelines for DOT to incorporate additional types of crash test dummies into the regulations and identify testing devices used in other countries for similar crashworthiness standards.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov