DALLAS - One evening about five years ago on U.S. Highway 69 near Tyler, Texas, Gene O'Donnell dodged death and got a sudden, startling glimpse of the future - all in seconds.

O'Donnell, his wife and another couple were cruising in a new Cadillac equipped with electronic suspension control when a car veered into their lane.

"We were going about 60, and I turned my wheel as far right as I could and did not lose control," said O'Donnell, 74, who was in the printing business in Dallas before retiring to east Texas. "My friend in front said, 'Gene, you missed that guy by four inches.'"

Little highway miracles like O'Donnell's could soon become commonplace.

Computerized safety systems that can stop skids and halt rollovers could reduce traffic fatalities by 30 percent or more over the next five to 10 years.

"I think you'll see a substantial impact," said Priya Prasad, technical fellow in safety at Ford Motor Co. "We are talking about a dramatic change in fatalities."

For years, automakers focused on protecting people in accidents, said Wilfried Achenbach, director of active chassis controls at the Chrysler Group. "Now the next step is how can we avoid an accident in the first place?"

Most automakers offer electronic suspension control, which monitors wheel movements and slippage and can bring a skidding car back in line using the brakes and throttle.

Over the next year or two, some will also install systems that apply the brakes if the car approaches traffic or other objects too fast. Other systems will beep or vibrate the driver's seat if the driver wanders out of his lane. And if a collision is deemed unavoidable, many will cinch down seat belts and even shut open sunroofs.

"From the standpoint of a safety advocate, I want a system where we don't have crashes anymore," said Bob Lange, executive director of vehicle structure and safety integration at General Motors Corp.

"The caveat we have to take into account is consumers have to be willing advocates in this system. We will have to get to a point where if they are in an extreme situation, it's OK for the vehicle to intervene."

One of the main debates about the new safety systems is how much control they should exert over a vehicle.

"Somewhere in the future, there could be total intervention," said Robert Yakushi, director of product safety for Nissan and Infiniti.

But that may be far in the future. While consumers seem interested in the systems, most are not willing to give up control of their cars.

"The vast majority say in our surveys that they want the ability to turn them off," said Mike Marshall, senior research manager of automotive emerging technology at J.D. Power and Associates. "At least at this point, consumers want the ability to choose when they use these systems."

Seat belts and air bags are "passive" safety systems that help occupants survive a crash.

But since roughly the mid-1990s, automakers have been working on active safety devices. Most were installed in luxury cars, where their relatively high cost - often $1,000 or more - is less of an issue with buyers.

Now, however, the systems are moving into the mainstream. GM has announced that its StabiliTrak suspension control system - like the one on the O'Donnells' Cadillac - will be standard equipment on almost all its cars and trucks by 2010.

So will OnStar telematics, a system that uses wireless communication and global-positioning technology to let drivers call for assistance at any time.

Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group plan to install stability-control systems on hundreds of thousands of sport utility vehicles over the next couple of years.

Those decisions are significant.

"It will give volume that we haven't seen for these safety features," said Marshall of J.D. Power. "And as they offer more of these systems and people get accustomed to them, they will demand more."

The sophisticated devices that drive the safety systems have gotten faster, better and cheaper over the last decade. Sensors that measure wheel and chassis movements are more precise, and computers that process the information are smaller and smarter.

"Instead of having one computer that can only do one function at a time, now we have a much more sophisticated computer that can quickly perform multiple functions," said Paul Williamsen, product education manager at Toyota.

Toyota's main active safety system is "vehicle stability control," which is available on "most everything from a Camry on up," Williamsen said.

But some models of Lexus - Toyota's luxury division - also get a "precollision system" that, sensing a crash, tightens seat belts, moves the front seats into optimal position for air bag deployment and prepressurizes the brakes to slow the car more quickly.

These systems could soon trickle down to average sedans. But will motorists want them - especially if they're $1,000 options?

In surveys, consumers say they want safer vehicles. But many may be reluctant to pay more than $500 for the systems, said J.D. Power's Marshall.

"After talking with a lot of people, we find there's an interesting dynamic to safety systems," he said. "At the global level, they have universal appeal. But at the dealership level, where someone may be weighing spending $800 for side air bags or $800 for a six-disc CD and DVD system, many - maybe most - opt for the entertainment system."

Still, consumer interest is growing.

When GM introduced StabiliTrak on Cadillacs in the '90s, customers "weren't that excited about it," said Craig Robbins, general sales manager of Sewell Cadillac of Dallas.

But the SUV rollover controversy several years ago got consumers' attention, Robbins said.

"Having a distinguished car with style still sells cars first," said Dean Granger, general manager of Park Place Motorcars in Dallas, a Mercedes-Benz dealership. "But safety is probably second."

Carl Sewell, chairman of Sewell Automotive Cos., said he was surprised to learn at a recent dealers meeting that safety had become Lexus buyers' main concern.

"It blew all of us away," said Sewell. "I guess safety is more than crashes now. It's an extremely important part of the overall buying process."