Anti-Rollover Technology for All Vehicles by 2012

September 26, 2006 | By: | Comments (1) | Posted in: Auto

Considered the greatest life saving improvement since the safety belt, the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) announced a new proposal to require auto manufacturers to install electronic stability control (ESC) as a standard feature on all new passenger vehicles by 2012.

ESC systems use automatic computer-controlled braking of individual wheels to help the driver maintain control in situations where a vehicle without ESC would skid out of control and likely leave the road. According to the NHTSA, nearly all rollover crashes occur after a vehicle leaves the road. The NHTSA estimates that ESC reduces fatalities in single-vehicle crashes by 30% for passenger cars and 63% for SUVs. Accordingly, the agency estimates that ESC will save between 5,300 and 10,300 lives annually and prevent between 168,000 and 252,000 injuries. ESC will prevent between 4,200 and 5,400 of the more than 10,000 deaths that occur each year as a result of rollover crashes.

Auto manufacturers are on board with this direction in safety. In fact, since 2004, the NHTSA has urged manufacturers to voluntarily add ESC as standard equipment on vehicles. As a result, almost 29% of all 2006 models (57% of SUVs) are already equipped with ESC.

For those concerned with the added cost to already expensive vehicles, ESC-enabling of cars is estimated to be only an additional $111 per vehicle, on vehicles that already include ABS brakes.

Source: NHTSA: http://www.nhtsa.gov/

 

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