Life-saving technology could help reduce deaths and injuries

RoadSafe, the road safety partnership of leading companies in the motor and transport industries, has welcomed the launch of the “Choose ESC !” campaign as a positive contribution to reducing the toll of vehicle deaths and serious injuries across the roads of Europe.

The EU wide eSafety Aware campaign launched Tuesday 8th May, under the patronage of European Commissioner Viviane Reding and FIA Foundation president Max Mosley, and is targeted at improving the general publics lack of awareness of the importance of fitting stability control to vehicles to help reduce the over 4,000 lives lost and 100,000 injuries in vehicle accidents. RoadSafe is an active member of the eSafetyAware group, an organisation seeking to accelerate the market introduction of life-saving technologies by arranging information programmes to influence governments and end-users.

“Stability control braking is as important as the introduction of the compulsory wearing of seat belts some 20 years ago.” said RoadSafe director Adrian Walsh. “If all vehicles across Europe were to be fitted as standard equipment with stability control we could reduce skidding accidents by 80%. Of course vehicle technology is only part of the answer, we must also focus on driving ability, road design and management, in fact a total holistic approach to road safety. However, having experienced ESC in a controlled test, I am confident that standard fitment of this technology would contribute massively to making driving safer”.