Electronic Stability Control for EVERY Car

ESC can reduce rollover crashes, the most deadly possible accident scenario on our roads. According to the NHTSA, the rate of serious injury in passenger-vehicle rollovers is 36 percent higher than in crashes where there is no rollover. Rollovers are by far the leading cause of fatalities in SUVs. In single-vehicle crashes, 79 percent of the fatalities among SUV occupants involved rollovers. Single-vehicle rollover crashes produced more than 50 percent of all occupant deaths in SUVs compared to 34 percent in pickup trucks and 19 percent in cars as found by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).


ESC can prevent 69 percent of single vehicle rollover crashes in passenger cars and 88 percent in light trucks—SUVs, pickups and vans, according to updated NHTSA research. According to government statistics, in 2005 single vehicle crashes accounted for 18,786 fatalities. Rollovers accounted for 8,046 of those fatal crashes. However, the government says that crashes due to driver inattention and drowsy driving would not be prevented by the ESC systems. Recently, The University of Iowa utilizing the National Advanced Driving Simulator studied the effectiveness of ESC. Using drivers from three age sets—young (18 to 25), middle (30 to 40) and older (55 to 65)—the simulators ran 180 driving tests of an intersection incursion from the right, a deceptively decreasing radius curve and a sudden lateral wind gust with the ESC on and another 180 tests with the ESC off. For these three maneuvers, ESC was 88 percent effective in keeping drivers in control of their vehicles.

Deactivation
The government rule permits (but does not require) automakers to install a switch that could temporarily disable or limit the ESC functions. This would allow drivers to disengage ESC when a vehicle is stuck in sand or gravel or when the vehicle is being operated on a racetrack. But the ESC system must return to fully functional mode the next time the ignition is turned on. The average driver though has no reason to ever turn their ESC system off. It will step in and correct driving errors to help prevent crashes. A driver must rely on a much slower human reaction should their ESC system be deactivated.


NHTSA will analyze the systems using a dynamic new test, where an actual driver will take a vehicle through a course, rather than simply using statistics and measurements to project results. In this new test, the driver will take the vehicle up to 50 mph then steer sharply in one direction, and then back again to simulate a typical avoidance maneuver on a highway. The vehicle's speed will increase with each maneuver until the vehicle either spins out or passes the test.