NHTSA’s Stability Control Rule Sent to OMB
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration announced Feb. 6 that a rule that would require stability control systems on trucks and buses was forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget for review.
“Our preliminary estimate produces an effectiveness range of 37 to 56% against single-vehicle tractor-trailer rollover crashes and 3 to 14% against loss-of-control crashes that result from skidding on the road surface,” NHTSA said of its stability control system rule.
“With these effectiveness estimates, annually, we estimate 29 to 66 lives would be saved,” NHTSA said.
“Based on the technology unit costs and affected vehicles, we estimate technology costs would be $55 million to $107 million, annually,” the notice said. “However, the costs savings from reducing travel delay and property damage would produce net benefits of $128 million to $372 million.”
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NHTSA first began working on a rule to require stability control systems in 2011, although Congress subsequently mandated the systems in a provision in MAP-21, the 2012 transportation reauthorization law.
When OMB finishes its review, the rule will go back to NHTSA to be reworked or published.
