For the first time, the federal administration has proposed a federal motor vehicle safety standard that would include the installation of electronic stability control systems on all commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published its proposed rule in the Federal Register in May of 2012, giving the public the opportunity to comment on it for 90 days. As offered, the rule would require electronic safety control (ESC) systems as standard equipment, depending on the type of vehicle, in two to four years once the rule is finalized.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood commented that the proposal “is a major step forward to improving the safety of large commercial trucks, motor coaches and other large buses.”
According to the Department Of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, electronic stability control systems could prevent as many as 56% of all rollover accidents every year. The data also indicates that electronic stability control systems can prevent as many as 40% of all accidents caused by loss of control of the vehicle.
Rollover accidents are some of the deadliest accidents which lead almost invariably to deaths and injuries.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has invested its resources to determine the best stability control systems that can prevent rollovers, and found that electronic stability control was the most effective tool to prevent these accidents. According to federal estimates, mandatory electronic stability control systems on large commercial vehicles can help prevent as many as 2329 accidents every year and as many as 60 fatalities.
The attorneys at Stark and Stark have long been proponents of making electronic safety control (ESC) systems standard equipment on all trucks and motor coaches. We have assisted hundreds of clients who have sustained significant and permanent injuries in truck and bus accidents achieve justice. The key to these cases is having top notch experts in place to quickly obtain all evidence before the trucking company or its insurance carrier has an opportunity to remove items from the record that would expose their negligence. Upon retention by our clients we immediately dispatch our trucking investigators to uncover and preserve the evidence before defendants even have time to obstruct justice.