The ChooseESC! campaign, led by the FIA Foundation, has started 2008 with a high profile event in the European Parliament involving more than 100 participants from the Parliament, ChooseESC! members and the press.
The campaign event, which took place in Strasbourg was hosted and chaired by MEP Malcolm Harbour and presentations were made by Max Mosley, FIA President and patron of the ChooseESC! campaign; David Ward, Director General of the FIA Foundation and Chairman of the ChooseESC! campaign; and Zita Gurmai, MEP (Rapporteur on the Commission 2nd Intelligent Car Communication).
ESC, or Electronic Stability Control, stabilises the vehicle and prevents skidding under all driving conditions and driving situations by active brake intervention on one or more wheels, and by intelligent engine torque management.
Experts believe that ESC is the most significant safety device since the seat belt which could avoid over 4000 deaths and 100,000 injuries if all cars in the EU had the system.
As soon as ESC identifies a critical driving situation it intervenes by applying specific brake pressure to one or more wheels, as required. If necessary, the engine torque is also adjusted automatically. In this way, ESC helps the driver stabilise the vehicle - although the extent to which it can do so is of course limited by the physical laws governing the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle.
FIA President Max Mosley said: "The EU must meet its goal of fitting Electronic Stability Control (ESC) on all new cars by 2012 and until then fiscal incentives should be offered to encourage take-up of this life saving technology. ESC could save 4,000 lives in Europe every year. We cannot afford any further delay if the goal of fitting ESC on all new vehicles by 2012 is to be achieved. With regulations being prepared on a global level, Europe must not fall behind the rest of the world in the push for safer vehicles".
ChooseESC! Chairman David Ward told the audience that studies in Europe and the USA show that ESC can reduce passenger car single-vehicle crashes by as much as 35% and yet the system is available on less than 50% of vehicles sold in Europe. He mentioned that raising the awareness among the consumers about this life saving technology is a large step in the right direction but he warned at the same time that increased demand alone is not enough to bring ESC into all vehicles from 2012 like it is done in the US. "Further actions will be needed in Europe," stressed Mr Ward.
Zita Gurmai, Member of the European Parliament, called for all decision makers to act quickly. "We need to take concrete actions to avoid that 4,000 lives are taken each year in Europe and more than 100,000 accidents happen as a result of skidding accidents that could have been avoided with ESC. We now have a unique opportunity to make an end to this and it is our common task and responsibility".
On the same day, the European Parliament adopted the CARS21 report. MEP, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, announced the news at the event as he had been the rapporteur on the CARS21 report. He said that targets on both environment and road safety have to be ambitious but also realistic. At the same time he stressed that he fully supports the ESC campaign and its activities.
European Commissioner and ChooseESC! Patron, Viviane Reding, came to the event and expressed her full support in making the European citizens more aware of the benefits of ESC. She said, "We need to inform the citizens about the benefits of having ESC and we need to explain the importance of choosing a car which has ESC when people buy a new car".
The message that actions needs to be taken has been spread across the world since the launch of the campaign in May 2007. Close to 40 organisations are directly supporting the campaign and events have been organised in many EU countries making this important issue more widely recognised. Participants in Strasbourg also had the opportunity to try the ESC simulator near the entrance of the Parliament to further understand firsthand what ESC is all about.
For further information, visit the ChooseESC! website at www.chooseesc.eu