Real world crash evaluation of vehicle stability control (VSC) technology.

Abstract

This study quantifies the effect of Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) in reducing crash involvement rates for a subset of vehicles in the US fleet. Crash rates for a variety of impact types before and after VSC technology was implemented are compared. Police-reported crashes from six available US state files from 1998-2002 were analyzed including 13,987 crash-involved study vehicles not equipped with the technology and 5,671 crashes of vehicles equipped with VSC as a standard feature. Overall, an 11.2% (95% CI: 2.4%, 21.1%) reduction in multi-vehicle frontal crash involvement was identified for VSC-equipped vehicles. A 52.6% (95% CI: 42.5%, 62.7%) reduction in single-vehicle crash rates was found.