Insurance in Wisconsin, US introduces discount for cars with ESC

Farmers Group, Inc. announced that it is offering an auto insurance discount from 1 February 2008 to customers with vehicles equipped with Electronic Stability Control (ESC). Customers are offered a 5% discount on the collision coverage portion of the auto policy. The discount is given for vehicles with a factory-installed ESC system as standard equipment.  

“According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), more than 10,000 motorists are killed in the US each year in rollover accidents, accounting for more than one-third of highway fatalities,” says Farmers Executive Vice President Kevin Kelso. “A report released in July 2007 by the NHTSA found that electronic stability control reduces fatal crashes involving a single car by 36 percent. The corresponding percentage for SUVs, pickups and vans is 63 percent. Fatal single vehicle roll-over crashes are reduced even further - 70 percent for cars and 88 percent for the other vehicles with ESC.”

According to analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, losses under collision coverage are about 15 percent lower for vehicles with ESC than for models without.

Farmers Group, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services, an insurance-based financial services provider with a global network of subsidiaries and offices in North America and Europe as well as in Asia Pacific, Latin America and other markets.