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Jed Boal ReportingOn a day like yesterday, we can appreciate all of the safety features the automobile industry has built into our cars. General Motors teamed up with local safety advocates to show off just how far car safety has come, and to show us where it's headed.
Many of us hydroplaned on the road when the big storm rolled across the Wasatch, but not all of us were in a smart car that adjusted to the conditions and helped us steer clear of hazards. The Electronic Stability Control in the GM SUV knows when to brake individual wheels so the driver can stay in control. It adapts to any road surface, from icy to dry.
Paul Mercurio, Engineering Manager, Robert Bosch Corporation: "It can recognize the accident before it occurs, and keep it from occurring altogether."
Other automakers also have their own version of this technology. Half of all GM's have it and all will have electronic stability control by the end of the decade.
Paul Mercurio: "The next five or six years, it will be on virtually every car you can purchase."
Competition brings down the cost of this technology, and studies by national safety agencies show it works.
Bridget O'Brien-Mitchell, General Motors: "If every vehicle out on our roads today were equipped with stability control, we could reduce the number of fatalities by ten thousand. That's about a third of all fatal crashes a year."
General Motors brought its safety team to town to show how safety technologies like airbags, child safety seats and seatbelts save lives. Safety advocates like the trend.
Sharon Hines-Stringer, Utah SafeKids Coalition: "These safety features, if used properly and installed correctly, make a decrease in fatalities and injuries."
The technology is actually so sophisticated, that when you have a crash, your car can notify a national call center that will notify a local dispatch to let them know where you had the crash and how bad it was.
The innovations are impressive, but the automaker believes the seatbelt is still the most important piece of safety technology.
