From AAIA Capital Report
BETHESDA, MD — According to an insurance industry study, stability control systems could save more than 7,000 lives a year if they were standard equipment on all vehicles. The study, conducted by the Institute for Highway Safety, found the greatest safety benefit for single-vehicle crashes that result in a fatality.
The stability systems, which automatically apply brakes to individual wheels if they sense a vehicle veering off course, reduced accidents by 56 percent. In addition, the study shows that these stability systems also reduced all one-car accidents, fatal and non-fatal by 41 percent. According to federal crash data, more than 15,000 people died in single-vehicle crashes in 2003.
In the U.S., approximately 21 percent of 2005 vehicles sold have stability systems, and an additional 19 percent offer them as an option. Although the price of the systems varies by manufacturer, it typically costs consumers an average of $500 to add an electronic stability control system.
The insurance institute study results are similar to federal government findings published in September. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found stability control reduced one-car crashes by 35 percent when compared to the same models sold in prior years without the technology.
While some safety advocates have called on NHTSA to mandate the systems in all vehicles, both the federal agency and the insurance institute say it’s too early to recommend that stability control be standard in all vehicles and more research is needed in a wider cross-section of vehicles.
To view the insurance institute study, visit: http://www.iihs.org/news_releases/2004/pr102804.htm.
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