e-SafetyAware

28 January 2007

The head of the US National Highway Safety Administration, Nicole Nason has urged the United Nations to take global action to promote the crash avoidance technology, Electronic Stability Control (ESC). Speaking at the UN World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Standards in Geneva in November, the NHTSA Administrator proposed a global technical regulation be adopted for ESC, which she described “as the greatest life saving technology since the seat belt”. More details...

RoadSafe has joined  ‘eSafety Aware’ which will launch a campaign to promote ESC next year. The campaign, ‘Choose ESC!’ will encourage the public to buy cars that are equipped with electronic stability control. At present the penetration of ESC across new vehicle fleets in Europe remains at 40% and much lower in the smaller car classes. In 2005, for example, only 6% of small family cars had ESC available as a standard fit. Welcoming Nicole Nason’s proposal for a global standard, David Ward said that “this is an excellent initiative by the NHTSA which will make it more likely that before too long all new cars in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere will have ESC as a standard life saving feature”. More details...