The increasing prevalence of electronic stability control on vehicles in the United States resulted in more than 4,100 lives saved over a four-year period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The NHTSA estimates that electronic stability control prevented 4,169 deaths of passenger vehicle occupants between 2010 and 2014. The estimated number of lives saved increased with each year, with about 38 percent of the saved lives occurring in 2014.

A federal standard established in 2011 requires that all new passenger cars, light trucks, and vans must be equipped with electronic stability control. This standard intended to reduce the frequency of single vehicle crashes caused by loss of control.

Electronic stability control builds on antilock brake technology by using automatic computer-controlled braking on individual wheels to help a driver maintain control. The technology is particularly helpful on curving roads and in slippery road conditions, when the rear wheels are more likely to lose directional stability or the front wheels are more likely to lose directional control. In this way, electronic stability control helps to prevent both rollover crashes and crashes where a driver loses control and leaves the roadway.

Studies from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have determined that electronic stability control reduces the risk of a single vehicle fatal crash by about 50 percent and a multiple vehicle crash by 20 percent. The studies also found that the technology cut the risk of a fatal single vehicle crash involving a rollover by 75 percent for SUVs and 72 percent for cars.

To estimate the reduction in fatal crashes due to electronic stability control, the NHTSA determined whether the vehicles included in its Fatality Analysis Reporting System had the technology available as a standard or optional feature. This information was used to determine the effectiveness in electronic stability control in preventing fatalities on the road.

Of the 21,022 passenger vehicle fatalities in the United States in 2014, 8.7 percent—or 1,829 deaths—were a result of a single vehicle crash in a model equipped with electronic stability control as a standard feature. This total, which included 1,120 passenger car occupants and 709 light truck or van occupants, excluded single vehicle crashes that involved pedestrians, bicyclists, or animals.

The NHTSA estimates that electronic stability control as a standard feature saved 682 lives in 2010. The estimated total increased to 896 in 2011, 1,225 in 2012, 1,366 in 2013, and 1,580 in 2014.

The feature was more likely to prevent fatalities in light trucks and vans than in passenger vehicles. For example, 899 of the estimated lives saved in 2014 were related to light trucks or vans while 681 were associated with passenger vehicles.

As older vehicles become less common on the road in the United States, the NHTSA expects the number of lives saved by electronic stability control to increase. An estimated 38.8 percent of the 255 million vehicles registered in the U.S. in 2014 had electronic stability control as a standard feature.

It may still take several years for electronic stability control to be a nearly universal feature on all vehicles registered in the nation. The Highway Data Loss Institute predicts that vehicles sold with electronic stability control will not make up 95 percent of all U.S. vehicles until the year 2032.