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The government said it would require all new passenger vehicles to have anti-rollover technology by the 2012 model year.
The Transportation Department said "electronic stability control" could prevent between 5,300 and 9,600 deaths annually and up to 238,000 injuries a year once it is fully deployed into the nation's fleet.
The technology could help motorists avoid skidding across icy or slick roads or maintain control of their car when swerving to avoid an unexpected object in the middle of the road.
Electronic stability control senses when a driver may lose control of the vehicle and automatically applies brakes to individual wheels to help stabilize it and avoid a rollover.
William Kozyra, president and chief executive of Continental Automotive Systems North America, a top supplier, said it "sets the stage for the next frontier to reduce motor vehicle fatalities."
More than 43,000 people are killed annually on the nation's roadways. Safety advocates view electronic stability control as a major advancement in safety because it holds the potential of reducing rollover deaths.
Some safety groups said the requirements were not stringent enough and failed to push automakers to put the most advanced systems on their cars.
Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen, said the regulations were "undercutting the likelihood that manufacturers will continue selling the superior technology now being offered to consumers." Although NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason has touted the new rule as requiring "the most technologically advanced safety equipment available," the truth is that what it has demanded is less sophisticated than every ESC system currently installed.
The new ESC rule falls short in several ways:
* It does not require roll stability control, which corrects vehicle
tip-up, a feature to prevent vehicles like SUVs from tipping over. (ESC
measures the vehicle's side-to-side movement.)
* It does not mandate the most extensive equipment available: every
system on the road today is more extensive than what the new ESC
standard requires.
* It requires the system to prevent loss of control when the vehicle
turns less than the driver intends it to (understeer) without requiring
a performance test to validate the effectiveness of the understeer
intervention.
NHTSA said the proposal, which applies to new vehicles under 10,000 pounds, would cost about $111 per vehicle on those that already include antilock brakes, or a total of $479 per vehicle for the entire system. Automakers will need to comply with a 50 mph test involving a double-lane change.
The requirement first was proposed last year, and the final regulations include a swifter phase-in plan. Stability control will be implemented beginning in the 2009 model year, when 55 percent of new vehicles will need to have it. By the 2011 model year, it will be in 95 percent of new vehicles.
Congress had required NHTSA to implement a rule by 2009.
Click Here for the new ESC final rule: ESC
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