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This week lawmakers will be proposing that stability-control systems be federally mandated for all new vehicles sold in the U.S. USA Today reports that comments will be taken for 90 days on the proposal and if approved a final rule could be issued as early as next year with a phase-in period to allow automakers enough time to disseminate the technology across their entire line ups.

Currently stability control is available on about half of all new models sold, but in some instances can cost up to $900 as an option. Studies have shown, however, that stability control can save a lot of lives, somewhere in the order of 10,000 per year. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, if the technology were made standard, then fatal single-vehicle crashes would fall by 56 and the risk of single-vehicles crashes would drop 40.

Since anti-lock brakes are an integral component in stability-control systems, the new rule would also make that technology standard across the board for the first time. Though it has never been federally mandated as standard equipment, ABS is now standard on 80 of all new vehicles sold.

[Source: USA Today]