eSafety Support promoting the eSafety initiative during the ChooseESC! Symposium

Creation date: 02 July 2008

The conference aimed at showing the progress made in ESC penetration in Europe, Canada and Australia. One of the messages conveyed is that the take-up of ESC for new cars in Europe is too slow or even, in some countries, stagnating. This doesn’t help the EU to reach its objective of reducing the road fatalities of 50% by 2010. In the US, ESC will become mandatory from 2012. This is what Europe, Canada and Australia also aim at.

Back on track thanks to ESC

Cars’ safety is improving a lot thanks to different tools and technologies such as improved crash test standards crumple zones, seatbelts, air bags and the introduction of different safety technologies like ABS and ESC. ESC can prevent the accident from happening in the first place and it has been hailed the greatest road safety innovation since the seatbelt. ESC identifies the risk of a skid at an early stage – even before the driver does – and uses the vehicle’s brakes to steer the vehicle safely back on track.

High level ambassadors

Commissioner Reding strongly supports the campaign as she believes that there still is a lot to be done to convince the consumers to perceive safety technologies as essential. As she stated:  “The European Commission has proposed to make ESC mandatory from 2012 but that does not mean that we can stop our promotion of safety technologies. We know that thousands of lives can be saved through our campaigning and training activities for safety technologies like ESC. We are obliged to tell the citizens that they should look for safety when they buy a new car as it might save their life one day.”

Michael Schumacher has also strongly endorsed the campaign. In a video statement, the seven times F1 World Champion gave the following strong message to car buyers: “Next time you are buying a car think about ESC. Ask your dealer for a model that is ESC equipped. You never know when a crash might happen so don’t take chances with the lives of you or your family. Make sure you choose ESC”.

 CEO of ERTICO ITS Europe, Dr Hermann Meyer                                        The conference took place within the Autoworld, in the heart of the European district

A big issue in the context of this campaign is the one of the car dealers and their will to know more about the system and, from there, to promote it. As ChooseESC! campaign chairman David Ward of the FIA Foundation explained: “We have been campaigning for Electronic Stability Control to be made mandatory for one year now. It’s unacceptable that thousands of lives are lost as too many cars are still not fitted with this crucial life saving system. It’s bad enough that many cars still don’t have this life saving technology fitted as standard. What makes matters worse is that dealerships are doing a very poor job at explaining the benefits of ESC.” Mrs Zita Gurmai, rapporteur on the Intelligent Car Report, shared this point of view: “Car dealers should be trained and encouraged to talk about safety devices, especially ESC, and to show to the clients why they need this feature in their new vehicle instead of promoting comfort and entertainment devices.”

Dr Meyer, CEO of ERTICO ITS Europe, the public/private partnership pursuing the development and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services, identified ESC as one of the core technologies to reduce accidents and fatalities on the roads and expressed his will to see all available tools – ranging from passive, to preventive and anticipative – being promoted. He also pointed out that a successful strategy to promote the market penetration of ESC depended on effective incentives for all stakeholders – it had to be a win-win for everyone.

eSafety’s presence

eSafety Support was present at the event distributing brochures and promotional material. The interactive Car CD displaying all the different tools inherent to the vehicles and external to the vehicles was displayed. The attendees could discover, with the help of eSafety staff, the whole dimension of this tool, by trying it on the spot.

The stand of eSafety Support in the main conference room

ESC is a safety technology that identifies the risk of a skid at an early stage – even before the driver does – and uses the vehicle’s brakes to steer the vehicle safely back on track. Whether the skid is the result of an emergency avoidance manoeuvre or a simple error of judgement, ESC can help the driver maintain control. 4000 lives and 100.000 injuries could be avoided every year if all cars in the EU had ESC. At least 40% of the fatal car crashes are the result of skidding. Studies show that ESC could-reduce skidding accidents by up to 80%. The ChooseESC! campaign is run by eSafetyAware! and is supported by Euro NCAP and the European Commission.

For further information about the campaign, please contact:

Ms Gaby Roosen – Tel: +32 (0)2 791 75 52 – info@esafetyaware.eu. www.chooseESC.eu

eSafetyAware! Secretariat Tel.: +32  (0)2  791.75.52 
Square de Meeus 37  Fax: +32  (0)2  791.79.50 
B - 1000 Brussels  info@chooseESC.eu