U.S. government to require anti-rollover technology on new vehicles

The U.S. government's traffic safety agency announced Thursday it will require new automobiles to have anti-rollover technology by the 2012 model year.

"No other safety technology since the seat belt holds as much promise to save as many lives and prevent as many injuries as electronic stability control," Nicole Nason, administrator of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told a news conference at a government highway research centre outside Washington.

The requirements will be phased in, beginning with the 2009 model year. They should be fully in effect for vehicles on the market by September 2011.

The agency estimated the rules would eventually save between 5,300 and 10,300 lives each year and prevent up to 252,000 injuries annually. About half of the deaths in rollover crashes could be prevented, theNHTSA said.

The agency's proposal will be open to a 60-day comment period before the plan becomes final. The NHTSA said the proposal would cost about $111 per vehicle on those that already include antilock brakes.

The crash avoidance technology senses when a driver may lose control and automatically applies brakes to individual wheels to help make the vehicle stable and avoid a rollover.

Already standard on many new vehicles

About 40 per cent of new vehicles already offer it as standard equipment, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The NHTSA estimates nearly 29 per cent of all 2006 models, including 57 per cent of sport utility vehicles, have the technology.

Several automakers already have implemented the technology on vehicles more prone to rollovers, including SUVs, vans and pickup trucks.

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday stability control would be a standard feature across all of its models by 2009. The automaker also plans to make side curtain air bags, protecting motorists' heads and upper torsos, standard on all models by 2009, spokeswoman Martha Voss said.

Ford Motor Co. said earlier this week that it would put stability control on its entire lineup by the end of 2009. General Motors Corp. has said it will have the technology in all vehicles by 2010, and all SUVs in the 2007 model year.

Safety advocates have said electronic stability control represents a crucial development in making cars, trucks and SUVs safer, drawing comparisons to the benefits of seat belts and air bags.

Rollover crashes are extremely dangerous they lead to more than 10,000 deaths a year even though theyaccount for only about three per cent of all crashes. More than 43,000 people are killed on the nation's roadways annually.

A study released this year by the insurance institute predicted 10,000 deaths could be avoided each year if passenger vehicles had the technology.

The study found stability control reduced the risk ofsingle-vehicle rollovers involving SUVs by 80 per cent, underscoring the benefits for the vehicles with high centres of gravity.

As part of the proposal, NHTSA officials outlined testing standards for the technology.