Designer of first female crash-test dummy wins global award

Dr Astrid Linder with her female crash-test dummy. Photo: Supplied

The judges in Women’s World Car of the Year have voted for the Woman of Worth Award, with  15 nominations but a clear winner is Dr Astrid Linder, the designer and instigator of the world’s first female crash-test dummy.

Dr Linder is a Professor of Traffic Safety at the Swedish National Road and Transport Institute, VTI, an Adjunct Professor of Injury Prevention at Chalmers University, in Gothenburg, Sweden, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University Accident Research Centre, in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Linder received her PhD in traffic safety from Chalmers University where she also has a MSc in Engineering Physics.

Professor Linder co-ordinated the EU-funded project ADSEAT where the world’s first virtual dummy model of an average female for rear impact, EvaRID, was developed. Previously, crash-test dummies were based on the ‘average’ male which was just one example of a bias in car design that, as a consequence, put female lives at risk.

She was awarded EU Champions of Transport Research Competition and the US Government Award for Safety Engineering Excellence, among many other awards she has received for her work.  

Marta Garcia, Executive President of Women’s World Car of the Year, says she is delighted that Astrid Linder has won the Woman of Worth (WOW) Award.

“She stood out in the voting and it’s an honour to have her win this award, the only award in the world voted entirely by women motoring journalists,” she said.

Honorary President and Co-ordinator of the WOW Award, Sandy Myhre, said “It was apparent from when the first votes started coming in that Dr Linder was going to win, it was that plain”.

Included in the WOW judging panel is AutoMuse founder, Liz Dobson, who said she was impressed with not only Dr Linder’s achievements for car safety but a strong female role model in the global motoring industry.

This year, the WOW also acknowledges the late Sue Baker as one of our founding judges.  Her insights, her wisdom and her knowledge during her time on our jury were greatly appreciated.  She was perhaps best known for her work as a presenter on BBC's Top Gear, appearing in more than 100 episodes.  She died in November 2022.

The Women’s World Car of the Year is a global organisation that features female motoring writers from five Continents and has a reach of half a billion people.