The European Commission is backing the Electronic Stability Control technology that is said to drastically reduce road accidents. This “e-safety” feature is pinpointed as the key technology to help reduce road fatalities across Europe. Recently, the European Commission has launched a “Choose ESC” campaign to raise awareness of the said technology. The European New Car Assessment Program (Euro CAP) works hand in hand with the commission in promoting this endeavor.

More than 40,000 people die and more than 1 million are injured on Europe’s roads every year. Loss of control–often from skidding–has been identified as a major cause. ESC detects when a car is about to skid and applies different brake pressure on individual wheels to stabilize the vehicle and avoid a skid developing. It greatly improves handling in wet and icy terrain, particularly slippery pavement, which reduces the risk of accidents by up to 20 percent.

Viviane Reding, European commissioner for information society, said to the public that the Commission sees the campaign as the first step towards cars standardized with the ESC by the start of 2012.

Generally, the take-up of ESC has been relatively low in the European continent. Denmark and Sweden are the top two countries that holds the largest proportion of vehicles fitted with Electronic Stability Control as a vehicular standard. On the other hand, Ireland and Malta dwindle at the bottom ranks as ESC sometimes being not an option. This is according to the survey conducted by the Euro NCAP.

A similar regulation was announced at the New York International Auto Show. The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a remark that the ESC system is highly acknowledged to supplement a safety contribution to braking technology. The new rule will require United States automakers to begin outfitting new cars with ESC systems beginning with the model year 2009. Soon they’ll be engineered as an automobile standard equipment by model year 2012.