Ford Motor Co. intends to get a jump on federal regulators by making electronic stability control standard on all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles sold in the United States by 2009.
The electronic system, known as ESC, can dramatically reduce crashes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is on the verge of announcing a new federal rule to require stability control. NHTSA is expected to require stability control on all vehicles by 2010 or 2012.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claimes ESC could prevent 10,000 fatal crashes a year if the systems were standard equipment.
Ford has built 4 million vehicles globally with electronic stability control systems. The system senses when a vehicle is about to skid and applies the brakes and slows the engine to keep the driver in control.
General Motors Corp. plans to make stability control standard by 2010. Most automakers already offer the system as standard equipment on SUVs.
Optional ESC can cost as little as $200 but automakers sometimes sell the system bundled with other options that can push the price to $2,000.
In 2005, rollover deaths increased 2.1 percent to 10,816. Deaths in SUV rollovers declined by 1.8 percent as more automakers added ESC, according to NHTSA data.
Electronic stability control uses a series of sensors to automatically correct when a car is about to roll over or lose control.
