| Overall the cars with ESC are involved in 7% fewer crashes although the effectiveness is substantially higher under conditions of adverse road friction i.e. 20% reduction on snowy and icy roads. ESC equipped cars are involved in 25% fewer fatal crashes and in 11 % fewer serious crashes. |
The study used the national accident statistics of Great Britain. The crash experience of 10475 cars was analysed and compared to a closely matching set of 41656 non-ESC cars using case-control methods. |
Frampton, F. & Thomas, P. |
2006 |
Effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control Systems in Great Britain. Vehicle Safety Research Centre, Loughborough University |
ESC reduces the risk of fatal multiple-vehicle crashes by 32 percent amd the risk of all single-vehicle crashes by more than 40 percent — fatal ones by 56 percent.
While both cars and SUVs benefit from ESC, the reduction in the risk of single-vehicle crashes was significantly greater for SUVs — 49 percent versus 33 percent for cars. The reduction in fatal single-vehicle crashes wasn't significantly different for SUVs (59 percent) than for cars (53 percent). ESC reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle rollovers of SUVs by 80 percent, 77 percent for cars. ESC was found to reduce the risk of all kinds of fatal crashes by 43 percent. Losses under collision coverage are about 15 percent lower for vehicles with ESC than for predecessor models without it. However, ESC doesn't have much effect on property damage liability claims or the frequency of injury claims. These findings track police-reported crashes, which show little effect of ESC on the risk of low-severity multiple-vehicle crashes. |
Statistical analysis of road accidents and fatalities as well as traffic insurance claims. |
IIHS |
2006 |
Update on Electronic Stability Control. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Status Report, Vol. 41, No. 5 and News Release, June 13, 2006. |
| ESC decreased the accident rate of single-car accidents by about 44% and that of head-on collisions by about 24%; the decrease was higher for more severe accidents; the decrease of single accidents and head-on collisions was higher on wet road conditions (58%) than on dry conditions (20%). |
Comparison of data of 1,471 single-car accidents or head-on collisions not caused by drunk driving or drowsy driving involving ten models that were originally designed and shipped without ESC but subsequently became to be equipped with ESC were chosen from the accident data held by the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA) in Japan. Accident numbers were related to the number of such cars in use. |
Ohono & Shimura |
2005 |
Results from the survey on effectiveness of electronic stability control (ESC). Press release. National Agency for Automotive Safety & Victims' Aid (NASVA) 2005/02/18. |
| The overall effectiveness of ESC on all injury crashes except for rear end crashes was 16.7 +/- 9.3%, while for serious and fatal crashes the effectiveness was 21.6 +/- 12.8%. The effectiveness for serious and fatal crashes on wet roads was 56.2 +/- 23.5 %. On roads covered with ice and snow, the corresponding effectiveness was 49.2 +/- 30.2 %. |
The estimates are based on the assumption that rear end crashes on dry road surfaces are not affected at all by ESC. |
Lie, A., Tingvall, C., Krafft, M. & Kullgren, A. |
2005 |
The effectivess of ESC (Electronic Stability Control) in reducing real life crashes and injuries. 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference (ESV), June 2005. |
| In Australia, ESC is estimated to reduce road fatalities in light vehicles by 29%. Assuming that ESC can prevent 50% of loss-of-control accidents and that an ESC units costs $1,000, ESC is estimated to have a benefit cost ratio of 0.51. |
Compilation of ESC safety evaluation results throughout the world. |
Paine, M |
2005 |
Electronic Stability Control: Review of Research and Regulations. Vehicle Design and Research Pty Limited for Roads and Traffic Authority of NSW. June 2005. |
| In Germany, 100 per cent equipment of all cars with ESP is estimated to reduce the number of accidents with car occupant injuries by about 7 -11 %. The reduction in the car occupant fatalities would be approximately 15 -20 % |
The study compiled all available accident studies on ESP effectiveness |
Langwieder, K. |
2005 |
Wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisstand zu ESP. 10 Jahre ESP, Berlin, 23. Februar 2005. |
| Single vehicle crashes were reduced by 35% in passenger cars and by 67 % in SUV crashes. The study also showed significant or borderline-significant reductions in the multi-vehicle crash rates per 100,000 vehicle years with ESC. |
As multi-vehicle crashes we used as the control group and it is possible that multi-vehicle crashes are being reduced by ESC, this means that the true effectiveness of ESC could be higher than estimated for single vehicle crashes. |
Dang, J. |
2004 |
Preliminary results analyzing the effectiveness of electronic stability control (ESC) systems. National Highway Traffic Safety Agency, USA. |
| ESC reduced single-vehicle crash involvement risk by approximately 41 % and single-vehicle injury crash involvement risk by 41 %. This translates to an estimated 7 % reduction in overall crash involvement risk and a 9 % reduction in overall injury crash involvement risk. Based on all fatal crashes in the United States over 3 years, ESC was found to have reduced single-vehicle fatal crash involvement risk by 56 percent. This translates to an estimated 34 percent reduction in overall fatal crash involvement risk. |
The study compared crash involvement rates for otherwise identical vehicle models with and without ESC systems. |
Farmer, C |
2004 |
Effect of electronic stability control on automobile crash risk. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Arlington, Virginia, USA. |
