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Insurers Want Feds to Move Up Electronic Stability Control Deadline

October 31, 2006

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The automobile insurance industry is urging federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to speed up a new rule requiring automakers to install electronic stability control in all new cars and trucks.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety argued in a letter to NHTSA that the benefits in lives saved are too great to delay the rule.

NHTSA announced last month that the agency would require automakers to install stability control systems in all vehicles by the 2012 model year because the stability control systems are as important as seat belts and air bags.

The federal rule will be phased in over four years, requiring 30 percent of vehicles to have electronic stability control by the 2009 model year, 60 percent by 2010 and 90 percent by 2011.

Roughly 29 percent of all new cars and trucks sold this year had standard or optional electronic stability control. NHTSA estimates that 71 percent of all new cars and trucks will carry stability control by the 2010 model year.

IIHS urged a more aggressive timeline because of its research showing electronic stability control reduces single-vehicle crashes by 40 percent and fatal crashes by 56 percent.

Stability control systems use sensors and the antilock braking system to help keep a vehicle pointed in the right direction by modulating power or brakes at each wheel.

The system is always on and kicks in if it senses you're about to lose control of a vehicle. For instance, if you try to take a curve took fast or make an emergency evasive maneuver on the highway.

"You still have to steer," explains Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, "but electronic stability control does the rest to brake individual wheels and even in some cases reduce the throttle."

IIHS estimates that if every vehicle on the road had electronic stability control 10,000 fatal crashes would be prevented every year.

NHTSA is taking comments on the proposed rule through November 17 and plans to issue a final decision early next year.

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