Hybrid-III 5F has no clothes and no hair — only a pair of plain black shoes that look like the type of clogs favored by line cooks and doctors. On her face is a half-smile and an expression of mild contentment. This model of aluminum and steel, and her smaller cousin, SID-IIs, are the crash-test dummies usually used to represent females in car-safety testing.
She and SID-IIs reflect the 5th percentile in height of women from more than 30 years ago, when they were developed. Only 5 percent of women will be shorter than this dummy. At a petite 4-foot-11 and 108 pounds, Hybrid-III 5F is a little lighter than an average 12-year-old girl today. SID-IIs has no arms and weighs 97 pounds.
Today, the average American woman is 5-foot-4 and weighs more than 170 pounds, according to the most recent data. Major safety rating systems used around the world ...
