ESC – Three letters to save lives

2 July 2008

Electronic Stability Control – ESC – has been hailed the greatest road safety innovation since the seatbelt. 4,000 lives and 100,000 injuries could be avoided every year if all cars in the EU had ESC! However, the take-up rate is far too low with only 48% of all new cars in Europe sold with ESC. If the EU wants to reach its goal to half the number of road fatalities by 2010, more action is needed to bring eSafety technologies like ESC to the consumer.

RoadSafe profiled the Driving for Better Business programme during a ChooseESC! Symposium held on Tuesday, 1 July 2008 in Brussels, during which the final steps needed to reach the goal of a 100% penetration rate, were discussed. The experiences of Europe, Australia, Canada, andthe United States were compared and the challenge of advancing the rollout of ESC to embrace the whole fleet was addresses.

The event featured:

• An overview on the activities organised in the scope of the public information campaign ‘ChooseESC!’
• Best practise examples of national campaigns and showcases on how to promote ESC including Driving for Better Busienss
• Release of a new EU wide ESC availability survey by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP)
• An international session on the latest global developments on ESC with experts from Australia, Canada, EU, and the USA
• An exhibition of the latest eSafety technologies

Full details including the programme and presentations are available here.