More US Stats - Sensor averts rollover danger

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/12/07/1102182389361.html

As sales of four-wheel-drives peak in Australia, more manufacturers
are looking at skid-control systems as standard equipment to
prevent deadly rollovers.

Electronic stability control (ESC) uses sensors and a computer to detect if the front or rear of a vehicle is sliding. Typically the computer then activates one brake at the opposite end of the vehicle in an effort to correct the slide.

More and more of the 4WDs sold in America are getting the skid-control systems as standard equipment.

Slides are particularly dangerous with 4WDs - or SUVs - because they have a higher centre of gravity than passenger cars. If they are sliding sideways, that means they are more easily "tripped" by something such as a curb or soft earth, resulting in a rollover. Skid control systems can dramatically reduce the number of single-vehicle accidents, which are generally caused by the driver losing control.

Toyota already has ESC as standard equipment on all its sport utilities in the US, and Honda has announced that by 2006 it will have skid-control as standard on even its least-expensive models. Ford and General Motors are also making the systems available on an increasing number of their sport utilities and utes.

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US found ESC reduced single-vehicle, fatal accidents by at least 39 per cent and as much as 68 per cent