By Justin Hyde,Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON – Electronic stability control, the system that keeps cars and trucks from skidding, could prevent 10,000 fatal crashes a year if it came standard in every vehicle, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says.

The new study, to be released Tuesday, adds to a growing pile of scientific evidence suggesting that electronic stability control is on a par with air bags and seat belts in saving lives.

But a few issues, including cost and customer confusion, could slow its adoption.

Automakers have been adding ESC to sport utility vehicles for years as a way to reduce rollovers, but the IIHS said the systems improve safety for passenger cars as well.

“The findings indicate that ESC should be standard on all vehicles,” says Susan Ferguson, the institute’s senior vice president for research. “Very few safety technologies show this kind of large effect in reducing crash deaths.”

About 30 percent of U.S. vehicles sold in the last year came with ESC, parts supplier Continental Teves reports. The systems are standard on 40 percent of 2006 models and optional on an additional 15 percent.

While the optional systems can cost as little as $200, occasionally they are sold only as a bundle with other options that can push the price to $2,000.

First developed by European automakers in the early 1990s, stability control uses a series of sensors and a vehicle’s anti lock braking system to sense when a driver is about to lose control.

It can then apply the brakes to each wheel and reduce the throttle to keep the vehicle under control.

Using state and federal crash data, a 2004 IIHS study found that ESC could reduce the chances of a driver getting into a single-vehicle accident by 41 percent and cut the chances of being involved in a fatal single-vehicle accident by 56 percent.

The new study, based on updated data, found that for undetermined reasons ESC works better for SUVs than for cars, cutting the risk of a single-vehicle crash by 49 percent for SUVs versus 33 percent for cars. ESC systems also reduce the chance of a fatal rollover in an SUV by 80 percent, with a 77 percent reduction for cars.

Including multiple-vehicle crashes, the new study found that ESC cuts the chances of a fatal crash by 43 percent. With 34,000 fatal crashes a year, the IIHS study says, 10,000 could be prevented if all vehicles had ESC.

Ferguson said ESC systems might find more acceptance if automakers would sell them under a common name instead of pitching their own brand of the technology. General Motors Corp. calls its system StabiliTrak, Ford Motor Co. calls its AdvanceTrak, and Toyota Motor Corp. dubs its Vehicle Stability Control.

Automakers have been moving toward putting ESC in more vehicles but not always at the same pace. G M has committed to make its system standard equipment in all its U.S. vehicles by 2010. Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG have said ESC will be standard in their SUVs, and Honda Motor Co. makes ESC standard in its trucks.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to release a proposed rule later this year that will mandate stability control, a move automakers have been preparing for.

“We anticipate that within the next several model years stability control will be virtually standard,” said Eron Shosteck, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

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