The American Trucking Associations issued a statement praising the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's proposed requirement for electronic stability control on large trucks.


NHTSA's proposal would require trucks to use electronic stability control, which could prevent a significant number of large truck crashes.

"Technology, whether it is ESC, roll stability control or electronic onboard recorders, can help our industry improve on its already impressive safety record," Graves said.

ATA said it will closely examine NHTSA's proposal with an eye on providing strong, substantive comments to the agency's docket later this year.

Steve Williams, chairman and CEO of Maverick USA of Little Rock, Ark., issued his own statement praising the proposal.

"Without a doubt our investment in Roll Stability Control (RSC) has dramatically reduced rollover accidents within our fleet-just as we have seen dramatic reductions in rear end collisions which we attribute to both first and second generation collision avoidance systems," he said.

NHTSA estimates that a standard requiring ESC on the nation's large trucks and large buses would prevent up to 2,329 crashes, eliminate an estimated 649 to 858 injuries and prevent between 49 and 60 fatalities a year.

Over the last three years, the cost of new equipment has risen by more than 35%, Williams noted.

"Safety and environmental technologies have played a part in the dramatic increase in the cost of equipment, but RSC and ESC systems really work."

Even though a little more expensive than RSC systems, with sensors that monitor vehicle movement and steering, ESC can help further mitigate rollover incidents by using automatic computer-controlled braking, and also aid the driver in addressing severe understeer or oversteer conditions that can lead to loss of control, Williams noted.