Mercedes-Benz: More than 20,000 fewer serious accidents per year with ESP

Press Release

DaimlerChrysler Board of Management member Dr. Thomas Weber

• Stability program most important element in traffic safety
• Share of driver-related accidents involving Mercedes passenger cars down 42 percent
• Improved occupant protection in passenger cars thanks to Mercedes innovations
• Passenger car development in a conflict of goals between Euro NCAP and practical experience with accidents
• PRE-SAFE® to be equipped in the future with a radar sensor to help prevent accidents
• Mercedes-Benz sponsoring driver training for young drivers
• New Mercedes book on safe driving

The Electronic Stability Program (ESP®) developed by Mercedes-Benz, which reduces the risk of skidding and helps drivers to better deal with critical driving situations, has led to greater safety on German roads and motorways. After five years of having the system included as standard equipment in Mercedes vehicles, the Stuttgart-based brand has registered a significant decrease in so-called driver-related accidents in which drivers lose control of their vehicles, skid and drive off the road. "If all automobiles were equipped with the stability system, more than 20,000 such serious accidents, which claim over 27,000 victims each year, could be prevented in Germany," says Dr. Thomas Weber, DaimlerChrysler Board of Management member for Research and Technology and head of Development at the Mercedes Car Group.

Since being fitted with ESP® as standard equipment, Mercedes passenger cars have been involved in serious driver-related accidents far less frequently than vehicles from other brands. The average share of newly registered Mercedes models involved in such accidents in 1998/1999 was 20.7 percent. ESP® helped to reduce this figure by more than 42 percent in 2002/2003. At the same time, the share of passenger car models from other brands involved in these types of traffic accident fell by only about 13 percent.

Driver-related accidents are one of the most severe types of accident that can occur: In 2003, 43 percent of all traffic fatalities and 20 percent of all injuries were due to driver-related accidents.

"Along with seatbelts, airbags and ABS, ESP® is by far the most important safety system in today's passenger cars," says Weber. "The invention of ESP® and the inclusion of this technology as standard equipment have enabled Mercedes-Benz to set an important trend in improving traffic safety."

The system does in fact offer tremendous potential for preventing serious accidents. Moreover, ESP® also helps to reduce the extent of injuries to vehicle occupants in an accident. For example, because the system stabilizes vehicles in a skid, the risk of dangerous side collisions with trees, poles or other objects at roadsides is reduced. Following the installation of the stability program as standard equipment in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars, the proportion of collisions resulting in the most severe injuries fell from 15 to five percent.

The results of Mercedes-Benz accident studies also show that passenger cars equipped with ESP® roll over less frequently than vehicles not equipped with this safety system. Thanks to ESP®, the proportion of Mercedes-Benz vehicles involved in rollover accidents has decreased by around 12 percentage points.

Studies conducted in the USA and Sweden also confirm the positive impact the system has had in reducing accidents or mitigating their consequences. The American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has determined, for example, that ESP® can reduce the number of fatal traffic accidents by more than one-third (34 percent).

ESP® celebrated its world premiere at Mercedes-Benz in 1995 and has been included as standard equipment in all the brand's passenger car models since the summer of 1999. Half of all newly registered vehicles in Germany are currently fitted with the system, with the proportion of small cars so equipped at under ten percent. Approximately one-third of all new passenger cars in the European Union are fitted with the safety system.