SUV Feature May Save Your Life

It can be really scary when you lose control of your car. But now there's a device that can help prevent skids, spins and rollovers.

And experts say it's saving thousands of lives.

The Early Show ConsumerWatch correspondent Susan Koeppen interviewed two moms in Bend, Ore., to find out more about the device.

Mary Meador wanted the safest vehicle possible for her family. That's why she bought a minivan with 4-wheel drive, airbags, and antilock brakes.

But those safety features couldn't help her when she hit an icy patch of road last month.

"My car, without any warning at all, began to spin out of control," Meador says.

With her 10-year-old daughter, Aedin, in the backseat, Mary Meador's car fishtailed across the road -- eventually skidding to a stop on the shoulder.

Meador recalls, "I was just trembling; it was just very scary. We were so lucky that it wasn't a bad outcome."

Mary Meador and her daughter escaped unharmed, but every year, 23-thousand people are killed in single-car crashes when drivers lose control. Studies show the danger is greatest with taller vehicles, such as SUVs. In abrupt maneuvers, they can easily flip over, and crash.

But now, a safety technology found in some cars and trucks is helping to prevent those kinds of crashes, and saving thousands of lives. It's called electronic stability control.

David Champion, the auto test director for Consumer Reports magazine says, "Electronic stability control is the best safety feature to come out since seatbelts."

Champion says stability control is the most important safety feature you can buy for your car. On virtually any kind of surface, it can keep your vehicle stable, using hi-tech sensors at each wheel.

Motioning with his hands, he explains, "If you turn the wheel and the car starts to slide, the wheels are pointing that way, but the car is going this way. That's when stability control will cut in and apply a brake to one or more wheels, to bring the vehicle back into line."

How big of a difference can it make?

Champion showed Koeppen, using a family sedan. With its stability control system turned off, an engineer drove the car through a course at 45 miles per hour, simulating emergency lane changes.

On each run, the car spun wildly out of control, knocking over cones, even skidding off the track.

Champion says, "If there were other cars around, trees, lamp posts, things like that -- bang."

And that happens "very quick," he notes.

If it had been an SUV without the stability control, Champion says, "We would have probably seen it roll over."

But after putting the car through the same maneuver, at the same speed, with its stability control turned on, time after time, it sailed right through --never knocking over a single cone.

The difference was quite amazing.

"The stability control really helps," Champion observes. "As soon as the car starts to slide, it applies the brake, brings the car back, makes it much easier for the driver to drive the vehicle through the course."

And Champion says it could very possibly save your life.

Kat Mastrangelo says she's living proof.

Last year, she was driving her new Volvo SUV down a snow-covered hill when her tires suddenly lost traction. Immediately, her stability control system kicked in.

Mastrangelo says, "The car, you could feel it grab; it was so quick; you don't even know it's happened until you're through the whole incident."

Mastrangelo says stability control kept her from skidding out of her lane and into oncoming traffic, helping her avoid a potentially devastating crash.

She says, "I think the real value of this technology is not just being able to walk away from an accident, but preventing the accident in the first place."

Stability control now comes standard on many luxury vehicles. You can also get it as an option for as little as $300.

After her scare, Mary Meador says it is money well spent.

Meador says, "Having an electronic stability control device is absolutely a priority for me in my next car."

For more information about electronic stability control, and to learn which 2005 model cars and SUVs are equipped with the system and more, check out the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Web site.