ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Equipping passenger vehicles with electronic stability controls can reduce fatal single-car crashes by 56 percent, a study said Thursday.
The controls cut the number of all one vehicle crashes by 41 percent and reduce multiple-car accidents by lesser rates, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported.
About half the nation's fatal crashes each year involve one vehicle.
Electronic stability control involves the use of sensors that monitor how well a vehicle is responding to a driver's steering input. When a vehicle strays from an intended line of travel, the controls brake individual wheels automatically to keep it under control.
"For most drivers ESC isn't likely to activate frequently," said Susan Ferguson, Institute senior vice president for research. "For example, it won't prevent most of the fender-bender crashes that occur so often in stop-and-go traffic. ESC is designed to help a driver in the relatively rare event of loss of control at high speed or on a slippery road."
Institute researchers analyzed police-reported crashes in seven states over two years as well as fatal-accident data from the federal government.
