A proposal to require stability control systems on truck tractors moved a step closer to publication this week when it was sent over to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final vetting.


The proposal will specify the details of a technology standard that that a growing number of fleets already have adopted voluntarily because they see safety benefits.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not said how it intends to handle the distinction between the two types of stability systems on the market, Roll Stability Control and Electronic Stability Control. But it has made clear that the proposal will cover only tractors, which according to experts indicates there is not likely to be a retrofit requirement.

There is ample safety justification for the proposal, the agency has said. Rollover and loss-of-control crashes are responsible for 304 deaths and 2,738 injuries a year, and stability control systems are effective in up to 56% of single-vehicle tractor trailer rollover crashes, and up to 14% in crashes from skidding. From this, the agency estimates that the systems will save as many as 66 lives a year and prevent almost 1,000 injuries.

The systems would cost the industry up to $107 million a year, but that cost would be outweighed by up to $372 million in savings from preventing property damage and travel delays, the agency said.

Stability control systems, which were introduced starting in 2002, get positive reviews from a growing number of carriers.

C.R. England President Chad England credits the Meritor Wabco stability control system with providing a 50% improvement in its rollover accident rate.

And John Conley, president of National Tank Truck Carriers, the trade association representing the tanker industry, says that in some respects the tank industry has already gone beyond a rule. "Just about any new tractor you buy today has a system on it, and any major manufacturer of cargo tanks will have roll stability systems as a standard item," he said in an interview last August.

OMB typically takes up to three months to complete its review of a rule, although it can move more quickly than that.