It's an option you may want to ask for if you're in the market for a new car, especially if you have teenage drivers in the family.

Accident rates are higher among teens than older drivers, but this new device can help protect young lives.

Some 6,000 teenagers die in car accidents every year, but it doesn't have to happen.

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A car safety device called "Electronic Stability Control" could save thousands of young lives every year.

A police lot is filled with cars that have been crushed and crumpled in an accident. Too often, a teenager has been involved.

"We see teenage drivers in collisions, often one-vehicle collisions especially, because of lack of judgment, usually with their speed," said Frank Lynch, a collision investigator.

Going too fast around a curve, a driver can easily lose control of the vehicle.

On Consumer Reports' emergency-avoidance course, it's is clear how effective electronic stability control is at keeping a car under control. With the stability control turned off, the driver has much less control.

Deputy auto editor Cliff Weathers explains stability control consists of sensors inside the car.

"Here's how stability control works. When a vehicle loses control on a turn, stability control applies one or more brakes to right the vehicle on its course," Weathers said.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says stability control is especially valuable in preventing single-vehicle accidents and can "reduce the risk of involvement in these crashes by more than 50 percent."

"Getting teens into vehicles with stability control could save thousands of lives a year and reduce injuries by tens of thousands."

Stability control -- which carmakers call many different names -- is now optional or standard on more than 150 cars, SUVs, and pickups.

A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says if every car on the road was equipped with "Electronic Stability Control," more than 10,000 fatal crashes could be prevented and fatal rollovers from top-heavy SUV's could be cut by 80 percent.

Electronic Stability Control is not usually available as standard equipment, but can be ordered as an option.