“As pioneer and manufacturer of active safety equipment our commitment to the European Road Safety Chart expresses our believe that we can support the EU in its goal to reduce the number of fatalities on European roads by 50 % till 2010”, says Sandra Pastore who is the Marketing director at Bosch Chassis Systems. Within the scope of the Charter, Bosch is committed to promoting the wider use of the Electronic Stability Program (ESP®), which can effectively prevent serious and fatal accidents by stabilizing the vehicle and preventing skidding. The objective is to increase the ESP equipment rate in new cars to above 50 % by 2010 through information campaigns to OEM and car buyers.

For this purpose, ESPerience, a European-wide dealer training programme on active safety, has been developed. Apart from the commitment itself the company has also built 4 ESP-simulators that can be used on exhibitions and at dealers to communicate the benefits of ESP to car-buyers.

Robert Bosch GmbH indicates that road safety has become an important concern for car-buyers. “Representative studies that we have commissioned in Europe in 2004 show that in-vehicle safety devices are increasingly an important criteria when buying a car.” comments Pastore “Unfortunately, only 31 % of respondants know for example the safety benefits of ESP. As ESP is still offered mainly as an optional in the market, we felt a need to strengthen our communication.”

Bosch has felt that as an important supplier of vehicle safety technology, they have a responsibility for the general road safety as well. “I think that that every person dying on the road is one human tragedy too much”, concludes Pastore. “And ESP is an appropriate measure to reduce the number of fatalities significantly.