Ottawa, Ontario – Transport Canada has released a new video that demonstrates the benefits of electronic stability control (ESC) on dry, snow-covered and wet pavement. The video can be viewed at CanadaCast.ca.
The video has six scenarios showing a vehicle travelling at approximately 80 km/h and making a sudden lane change. In each scenario, the driver loses control of the vehicle without ESC and slides 180 degrees; with ESC, the vehicle moves slightly laterally but the driver does not lose control.
Preliminary analysis of 2000-2005 Canadian crash data indicates that vehicles equipped with ESC were involved in approximately 30 per cent fewer severe crashes due to loss of control than vehicles unequipped with ESC. Transport Canada said that based solely on 2005 data, there would be at least 255 fewer deaths and 1,440 fewer people seriously injured each year if all passenger vehicles were equipped with ESC.
Transport Canada is exploring various alternatives to accelerate the availability of ESC on new passenger vehicles sold in Canada, is encouraging all manufacturers to provide ESC as a standard safety feature, and is developing a proposal which would require ESC on all new light vehicles sold in Canada. The system has already been mandated in the U.S. on all passenger vehicles sold in that country by model-year 2012.
