[wheelguy]

A study was done by Kavi Bhalla and Kevin Gleason of University of Chicago to assess the effectiveness of various vehicle safety technologies in reducing deaths & injuries due road accidents in Latin American & Caribbean(LAC) region, it was found that ESC, ABS, and usage of seatbelts were most effective in reducing deaths & injuries compared to other technologies. Next effective tech is pedestrian protection oriented front-end design of vehicles. Airbags front & side proved to be less effective as they try reduce injury in case of accident while ESC & ABS were more effective because they help in preventing the accident.

For full article and for knowing about the methods/procedures followed in the study, refer: Link

PDF copy of the study:

[Bibendum90949]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

[left]Airbags front & side proved to be less effective as they try reduce injury in case of accident while ESC & ABS were more effective because they help in preventing the accident.

+1 to this. ESC is such an essential safety feature in a car. A good number of crashes takes place when driver loses control, especially when one's forced to change direction to take evasive action and that inevitably will have braking involved too. ESC comes handy and plays a saviour role in such moments.

We already have ABS and front airbags as mandatory safety features. I strongly believe ESC should be appended to that list.

It frustrates me no end when most manufacturers skip this feature to play on the price game. Take for instance seltos, I wanted an auto box with diesel and I booked the then top trim HTX+ which to my surprise doesn't have ESC (the GTX + AT diesel was launched later). I would've happily traded off few creature comforts for ESC instead.