ABS Education Alliance Provides Resources To Highway, Traffic Safety Community

By Rosemarie Kitchin, director of ABS Education Alliance
As published in the June issues of "Highway Headlines" and "Operation Buckle-up Dispatch"

With more than 57 million ABS-equipped vehicles on the road today, the need to educate the driving public on the proper use of the advanced braking technology is more pressing than ever. How can you help make a difference? The ABS Education Alliance has some answers.

Widely recognized by government and industry leaders as one of the most significant safety advances in modern automotive engineering, ABS provides drivers with better braking and steering control in hard stopping situations. But before ABS can be 100 percent effective, drivers must fully understand and be educated on how to operate a vehicle equipped with this advanced technology.

Since its inception in 1995, the ABS Education Alliance's mission is to effectively educate the driving public on the proper use of the technology. The Alliance has made significant accomplishments over the last three years. These include securing test questions on the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators' national model driving examination -- an effort to make proper use of ABS "required learning" for drivers -- developing a comprehensive curriculum for driver ed instructors and establishing a presence on the Internet.

The Alliance wants to be a resource for the IACP and other highway traffic safety specialists and educators. It has produced brochures, established a toll-free number
(1-800-ABS-8958) and developed a curriculum that is accessible through its Web site (www.abs-education.org).

The site includes a vast array of information, including the dos and dont's of ABS and answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about ABS.

We invite the traffic safety and law enforcement community to explore the many resources and variety of material available on braking with ABS. Working together, we can help make the roadways safer.

Learning to brake with ABS is not difficult. With four-wheel ABS, the most important thing to remember is to brake and steer. Drivers should not pump the brake pedal as with conventional brakes; instead, they must push down on the pedal firmly and steer out of danger during an emergency stop.

The best way to understand the benefits of ABS simply is to practice and feel the difference between controlled steering and braking with ABS. An empty parking lot can be an ideal location for this.

By spreading the word on the effective use of ABS, we will help make drivers more aware of the ABS advantage and America's roads safer than ever.

Rosemarie Kitchin is director of the ABS Education Alliance, which is a coalition of four major anti-lock brake manufacturers in the United States: Robert Bosch Corporation, Delphi Automotive Systems, Continental Teves and LucasVarity Automotive. It was formed in 1995 to educate the public on the safety benefits and proper use of anti-lock brake systems.

Kitchin, who also serves as director of communications for the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), has been an executive and lecturer in the automotive industry for 21 years.