US mandates ESC for trucks

America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has finalised its ruling on the mandatory requirement for electronic stability control in heavy trucks and buses – a measure it anticipates will save around 50 lives each year.

According to US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, the new legislation represents a major win for all motorists in the US.

"ESC is a remarkable safety success story, a technology innovation that is already saving lives in passenger cars and light trucks," he said in an NHTSA media statement.

"Requiring ESC on heavy trucks and large buses will bring that safety innovation to the largest vehicles on our highways, increasing safety for drivers and passengers of these vehicles and for all road users."

The NHTSA estimates the rule will prevent as many as 1759 crashes, 649 injuries and 49 fatalities annually, while also preventing up to 56 per cent of 'untripped' rollovers – accidents where a truck rolls without first hitting an obstacle or leaving the road.

Here in Australia the Government is currently examining the mandatory introduction of stability control in heavy vehicles as a part of Phase II of its National Heavy Vehicle Braking Strategy (NHVBS).

Industry sources indicate a draft Australian Design Rule (ADR) relating to the introduction could be ready by the end of this year, although the actual roll-out of the legislation would likely be staged over three years after the ADR's publication.

Phase I of the NHVBS saw the mandatory introduction of anti-lock brakes to all new heavy trucks and buses from the start of this year under ADR 35/04, while ADR 389/04 recently saw either ABS or a load proportioning system mandated for heavy trailers.

European truck manufacturers and brake specialists are focussing their efforts on developing stability control systems and electronic brake systems that operate co-operatively between both a prime mover and its trailer, while in contrast US manufacturers are predominantly working on systems that act largely on the prime mover.

As a nation that largely adopts technologies from either Europe or the US, the way forward for Australia in this field is far from clear cut, and further clouded by the compatibility issues that would invariably arise through switching trailers and trucks of mixed origins.

The Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) says annual deaths from crashes involving heavy vehicles have fallen by 20.3 per cent of the last decade. Still, in 2014 some 220 people were killed in such accidents – 51 per cent in crashes involving articulated trucks, 39 per cent in crashes involving rigid trucks, and nine per cent in crashes involving buses.