More than half of all UK new car buyers are being denied a vital safety system that could save more than 400 lives and 3,000 serious injuries on the nation’s roads each year.

That’s the claim of Thatcham, the motor insurance research centre, which has joined the growing clamour for Electronic Stability Control (ESC) – which is also known as ESP, DSC, VSC and ASTC by some vehicle manufacturers – to be fitted as standard to all new cars. Eighteen months ago leaders of the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) called on motorists to ensure the next vehicle they chose was fitted with ESC.

Although UK fitment of the technology has increased, it is standard on less than 40% of cars sold in UK showrooms and is not offered as an optional extra on a number of models. Thatcham, which has established a website ratings guide to help motorists find out which cars have ESC fitted as standard (www.thatcham.org), as an option, or on which cars it is not available, says that in the UK only Audi, Cadillac, Lexus, Mercedes, Porsche and Volvo have the technology fitted to all models. Meanwhile, five manufacturers – Chevrolet, Daihatsu, Lotus, Proton and Suzuki – do not offer ESC at all.

The website highlights, for example, that ESC is standard fit on the top spec Vauxhall Zafira, is not available on the base model and is an option on mid-spec models. Matthew Avery, Thatcham’s crash laboratory manager, says: “This is a shocking state of affairs. British motorists, their passengers and other road users deserve the very best. Do manufacturers think that their lives are less valuable?” Research by manufacturers including Mercedes, Toyota and Volkswagen shows that ESC can reduce death and serious injury in some accidents by up to 40%. Compared to Britain, around 90% of new vehicles in Sweden are fitted with ESC as standard and around 60% in Germany.

Mr Avery adds: “This is collision avoidance technology – the data is irrefutable. Pressure must be brought to bear to make ESC as commonplace as ABS or airbags. ESC doesn’t just help during a crash like an airbag – it helps prevent the accident happening in the first place.”

Bosch, the company that developed stability systems over a decade ago, has welcomed Thatcham’s ratings guide. However, company research has shown that only 9% of UK motorists are aware of ESC. Bosch GB managing director Hermann Kaess says: “Anything that makes the motoring public more aware of stability control and its potential for saving lives and reducing serious injuries has to be applauded and we will do all we can to support and promote this important road safety initiative.”

Bosch was one of the first signatories of the European Union Road Safety Charter and has committed to promote the benefits of ESP, as it refers to ESC. To date, the company has demonstrated, through its ESPerience programme, what ESC is and how it functions to some 25,000 dealer sales staff across Europe (www.esperience.net). Bosch received the coveted Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2003 for its development of ESC technology and the company is one of the world’s leading suppliers of this technology to passenger cars and light vans.

Ford has announced that in the US, ESC will be standard on all its models by the end of 2009. The manufacturer’s move came as the United States National Highway Transport Safety Authority said that ESC would be mandatory, after a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicated that crash deaths on American roads could be reduced by 10,300 and 252,000 injuries prevented if all vehicles were equipped with the technology. About 34,000 people are killed in car crashes in the US annually. In the UK, ESC – or ESP as Ford of Britain refers to it – is standard on Ford Mondeo V6, Titanium X and STs; Ford Focus ST2 and ST3; and Ford Fiesta ST. It is optional across all other models (except C-Max Style) and on some Fiesta and Fusion models it is available as part of an options pack. Ford Ka does not offer ESP.

“The car industry has invested significantly in passive safety systems, protecting occupants and pedestrians involved in accidents”

A Ford of Britain spokesman says: “ESP is an important safety system. It is an example of the investment manufacturers have made in systems that are designed to prevent an accident rather than mitigate its effect. There are many different pieces to the road safety jigsaw and ESP is certainly a part, with others including driver-training particularly for fleet drivers, child education, government road safety campaigns and improved road design.” He says that any decision to fit ESP as standard to all Ford models in the future would be a product development move made at a European level (see panel). The technology, which Thatcham says costs £50 to manufacture, is billed in the US as the “most life-saving safety device since the seatbelt” as it works in situations where a driver may be losing control of their vehicle, skidding off the road or spinning on a carriageway. Sensors instantly detect the emergency and ESC selectively brakes individual wheels to help the driver control the vehicle.

Mr Avery says: “The average cost of ESC as an optional extra is a substantial £450 – with the range being £250 to £1,000 and is often bundled in with other addons as an expensive option pack. The cheapest way to fit it is as standard, so why not just do it. Safety should be totally paramount – and not treated on a par with a set of alloy wheels or an enhanced stereo system.”

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders responded to Thatcham’s demand for the standard fitting of ESC by calling on the organisation to recommend insurance premium discounts for drivers of cars fitted with the latest accident prevention technology. Thatcham says that international insurance figures point to a 15% reduction in damage costs where ESC is fitted. As a result, the SMMT says that insurers, Thatcham’s members, should pass equivalent 15% insurance policy savings on to customers who choose cars equipped with ESC. Stressing that ABS, another active safety system, has now been fitted as standard to new cars since 2004 in a voluntary move taken by the car industry, an SMMT spokesman says: “The car industry has invested significantly in passive safety systems, protecting occupants and pedestrians involved in accidents.

“However, millions of pounds have also been spent on accident avoidance systems, like lane departure warnings, assisted braking, anti-rollover and adaptive headlights which have saved countless lives. They’ve also saved the insurance industry millions of pounds and it’s high time that was recognised in cheaper insurance for customers.” The SMMT says that no active safety system is currently included as part of Thatcham’s insurance rating criteria, which, it says, means that more and more new car buyers are benefiting from the technologies, but not cheaper insurance premiums.

While Euro NCAP along with Thatcham, a member of Euro NCAP, recommended that motorists buy cars fitted with ESP, the organisation has dismissed speculation in some quarters that stability control testing will shortly be introduced into its crash rating protocols with points for a sixth “safety” star potentially available. As previously reported by RoadSafe, Euro NCAP is continuing to work on developing protocols for whiplash protection, although no timetable for their introduction is available.

A spokeswoman says: “When it is incorporated into the rating, extra points will be available. If sufficient points are gained from all the assessments for adult occupant protection and the total exceeds 40 points, then the car will be awarded six stars. However, the sixth star will not be directly related to whiplash assessment.

“Currently, we know of no test procedure that we could use to assess ESP systems. Consequently, we are currently unable to test for ESP.”

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