A report in this week’s Autocar has concluded that fitting stability control systems - such as Bosch’s market-leading ESP system – as standard to all new cars could save 20,000 lives in Europe and 2500 in the UK alone between now and 2010.

ESP was first fitted to a production car a decade ago, an electronic control to regulate speed and braking of a vehicle when it starts to skid, and recent research by Volkswagen found an incredible 35 per cent reduction in fatal accidents in cars equipped with ESP.

Road accidents are the leading cause of death and disability in the UK for people aged five to 40 - more than 3,500 people die on British roads each year – yet at the end of last year just 20 per cent of new cars sold in the UK were fitted with stability control.

Now Autocar and autocar.co.uk are joining forces to raise awareness of the benefits of stability systems and discourage the suggestion that their presence harms on-road performance. ' If the government campaigned for it to be standard equipment, ESP has the potential to save as many lives as the seatbelt,' says Autocar editor Rob Aherne.