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by u801e 3344 days ago
Vehicle stability control isn't mandated by NHTSA, and I don't think that it's a feature on a substantial portion of the vehicle fleet.

You would have to look at what vehicle safety features were mandated between 2000 and 2010 to really see if any of them played a part in the decline in the fatality rate in the 2005 to 2015 time period.
1 comments
learc83 3344 days ago
Electronic stability control has been mandated by the NHTSA since 2012 (they required at least 55% of 2009 models sold to be equipped with it, 75% of 2010 models, and 95% of 2011 models)

Also in 2007 about half of all new cars sold were equipped with it.

The NHTSA and the Insurance Institute for Highway safety estimate that stability control could prevent 1/3 of fatal accidents.

If a substantial portion of cars started to be equipped with it around 2005 (they did), it's a likely explanation for a decline in traffic fatalities since then.

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u801e 3344 days ago
> Electronic stability control has been mandated by the NHTSA since 2012 (they required at least 55% of 2009 models sold to be equipped with it, 75% of 2010 models, and 95% of 2011 models)

I should have looked that up before stating the opposite. My mistake.

> Also in 2007 about half of all new cars sold were equipped with it.

I've read that the average vehicle age is about 10 years. That means that only now are we getting to the point where the vast majority of vehicles would be equipped with electronic stability control. Looking at the FARS page I cited earlier, the decline in fatality rate is pretty clear, but how prevalent ESP was and how much it changed in that time period is not as clear (at least I don't have the data for it).

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learc83 3344 days ago
Some very back of the envelope math shows that each year about 7% of vehicles are replaced each year, so by 2012 we can estimate that about 35% of cars would have been 2007 models or newer.

So by 2012 we have a minimum of 17% of cars with electronic stability control (probably much higher given that by 2010 75% of cars sold were mandated to include it). If cars with electronic stability control are really involved in 1/3 few accidents, then we'd expect a very sizeable decrease in vehicle fatalities due to electronic stability control alone by 2012 and probably much earlier.

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