Drive Safer America! Presents Active Vehicle Safety at Meeting of Public Health Officials

The state of automotive safety discussed at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 -- Drive Safer America! took its message on the road today with a presentation for public health officials at the American Public Health Association 132nd Annual Meeting and Exposition. Spokesperson Phil Headley gave a luncheon presentation on the importance and benefits of active vehicle safety technologies, making America's roads safer and helping to prevent crashes, injuries and fatalities on our nation's highways.

"According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 42,000 Americans died on our roads in 2003," Headley said. "Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 4 and 34," he continued. "There is technology available today to help decrease fatalities and injuries on America's roads."

Headley's remarks featured an overview of safety equipment available now, such as electronic stability control (ESC), lane departure warning, adaptive cruise control and active rollover protection. Also highlighted were some future vehicle technologies that will be available soon, including a fully integrated approach to vehicle electronics that encompasses active and passive safety technologies, including airbags, seatbelt pretensioners and sunroofs and windows that close when an impending collision is detected, helping protect passengers when a collision is unavoidable. Electronic stability control is the foundation of this approach to integrating safety technologies.

"Recent significant research has proven the benefits of active safety technologies, like ESC," said Headley.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported last month that " ... widespread application of ESC in the vehicle fleet can be expected to afford a significant safety benefit" because the technology "reduces fatal single vehicle crashes by about 56 percent, and all single vehicle crashes by 41 percent." This concurs with NHTSA's recent report of preliminary findings that ESC reduced single vehicle SUV crashes by 67 percent. The NHTSA study also found that ESC reduced single vehicle crashes in passenger cars by 35 percent. Evaluating fatal crashes only, the NHTSA found ESC was associated with a 30 percent reduction for passenger cars and 65 percent for SUVs.

These new systems enrich the driving experience by making people safer and more comfortable. The safety advances that the 'smarter vehicles' bring are crash avoidance benefits. "Active and passive safety measures must be networked in order to reach the objective we all seek -- the avoidance of crashes, if possible, and when crashes are not avoidable, significant reduction of fatalities and injuries," said Headley.

Drive Safer America! is focused on educating consumers about how to use the latest safety technologies. Since it was launched in 1997, the Drive Safer America! campaign has brought safety messages to tens of thousands of American consumers and makes instructional material available free of charge to safety organizations and consumers. For more information, visit Drive Safer America! at http://www.drivesaferamerica.org/ .