Global NCAP has encouraged the Brazilian government to make the life-saving anti-skid system electronic stability control (ESC) mandatory for all new cars.
In 2014 Brazil made anti-lock brakes (ABS) a standard fitment and Global NCAP believes that a similar requirement should now be made for ESC.
ESC is widely considered to be the most important car safety development since the seat belt. In the United States, where ESC became mandatory from 2012, it’s estimated that already more than 6,000 lives have been saved by this crash avoidance technology.
In addition to the USA, ESC is now mandatory in Australia, Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and will soon also be in Argentina.
In their recent Global Status Report on Road Safety the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed their concern that global car manufacturers who are required to fit ESC in high-income countries “can sell the same model to markets without this life saving technology if the country does not apply the ESC regulation”.
To avoid de-specification of safety technologies the WHO says ESC “should be mandatory in all vehicles”. Noting that the system is also effective in commercial vehicles (such as trucks, coaches and mini-buses) the WHO comments that “there is enormous life-saving potential for this technology across the world’s entire vehicle fleet that has yet to be tapped globally.”
New research commissioned by Global NCAP has revealed that 34,000 Brazilian lives could be saved and 350,000 serious injuries prevented by 2030, if UN vehicle safety regulations including ESC were adopted in national legislation.
David Ward, Secretary General of Global NCAP and Chairman of the Stop the Crash Partnership, said,
“ESC is a vital life-saving technology which can prevent crashes altogether rather than just protecting people when one occurs.
“Our latest research shows that hundreds of thousands of deaths and serious injuries could be prevented in Brazil if ESC and a package of other UN regulations were introduced. This is why Global NCAP recommends that the Brazilian government build on their 2014 decision to mandate ABS and do the same now for ESC.”
