Ford will install an electronic system designed to prevent rollovers in all sport utility vehicles and pickups, the company said Wednesday.
Ford announced previously it would install the electronic stability control system in the 2002 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer. The system will be installed in Ford’s other new SUVs and pickups over a period of several years.
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About 9,500 people are killed every year in rollover crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Rollver crashes are the cause of more than 60 % of fatalities in SUVs and more than 40 percent of deaths in pickups. By comparison, 22 percent of car deaths involve rollovers.
The stability control systems, which use a set of sensors to keep a vehicle from spinning out, are widespread in Europe and are increasingly being included on passenger cars in the United States.
So far, only two luxury SUVs have such systems — the Mercedes M-Class and BMW X5. General Motors Corp. will include stability control on the new version of the Cadillac Escalade SUV due out this fall, and other manufacturers are considering it.
Although the systems vary slightly, each takes antilock brakes and adds three sensors — one each for steering wheel angle, vehicle spin or “yaw” and turning force. Engineers program each system with data about what direction the vehicle should go at a certain speed when the steering wheel is turned.
When the system detects the vehicle moving in a direction that doesn’t match the stored data, it briefly applies a brake to one wheel. That prevents the vehicle from spinning out in severe turns or on surfaces with poor traction.
