DRIVERS and fleet managers have been urged to make a life-saving choice at vehicle replacement time which would cost them less than the price of a CD-player or metallic paint.

Ticking the box for stability control on a fleet car, or insisting it is fitted as standard on all fleet vehicles, could save staff from a serious accident during emergency manoeuvres, experts claim.

The system, commonly called ESP, brings together a number of technologies to stop a car from skidding out of control during extreme manoeuvres, such as when swerving to avoid an object on the motorway, then turning back sharply to keep away from the central reservation.

Normally this would result in the back-end of the car spinning around and the driver losing control. A stability control system intervenes through removing power or braking individual wheels, to keep the vehicle headed where the driver intended.

Experts from Bosch, which produces the ESP system, said while it was standard on more expensive brands, it was still an optional extra on many volume makes.

Speaking at the London west regional meeting of Acfo, the fleet managers’ association, a Bosch spokesman said: ‘ESP was developed 10 years, ago but there is still very low awareness. Research shows that 25% of severe personal injury accidents are caused by skidding and 60% of all fatalities come from side crashes, many of them caused by skidding and hitting roadside furniture.’