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Auto Black-Box Data Being Used In Court
DrEnter writes "Yahoo! is running this USAToday article about automobile electronic data recorder (EDR or "black-box") data being used in civil and criminal court cases. Most owners of cars so equipped don't know they have them, or that they can be used against them. The NHTSA has been investigating EDRs and is collecting public comments to determine if and how these devices should be regulated."
FORT LAUDERDALE -- So-called ''black boxes,'' which have provided valuable information in determining what has caused airliners to crash, are now being used to help tell what happened in automobile accidents. And information from the computerized devices is increasingly finding its way into civil and criminal courtrooms, where judges and juries are trying to determine who is at fault in car crashes. Some prosecutors and defense lawyers say that the data from black boxes, which are on about 40 million cars in the USA, provide an unbiased account of accidents. But privacy advocates are raising warnings about how information from the boxes is being used. In a trial that opened here this week, , prosecutors hope that measurements obtained from the black box on Edwin Matos' 2002 Pontiac Trans Am will tell what happened seconds before his car slammed into another one occupied by two teenage girls. Matos, 46, is accused of driving drunk when the collision occurred on Aug. 17, 2002, in Pembroke Pines, Fla. The girls were killed. Prosecutors say that black-box evidence will show Matos was driving four times the posted speed limit of 30 mph at the time of the crash. Matos has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Roberto Stanziale, plans to call the black-box data into question. Black-box recorders have been used on airplanes since the dawn of aviation. Wilbur and Orville Wright used crude machines to record basic information about flights. Starting in the jet era, flight data recorders became integral to investigating crashes. Most drivers unaware of them Initially, they tracked an airplane's movements so investigators could piece together an aircraft's final moments. Steady improvements have broadened the amount of information these recorders store. The latest models record thousands of measurements, from engine temperature readings to the positions of switches in the cockpit. Surveys indicate most motorists don't know that cars have black boxes. But their use is on the rise. Unlike the aviation models, which are required by federal law to be on aircraft, the black boxes in autos are used in safety investigations only as an afterthought. They were installed on newer-model cars to trigger air bags. Because they are not required, no exact figures exist on their use. But experts say that most U.S. automakers began installing some forms of the device in the 1990s. They have found information from the boxes valuable in product-liability lawsuits and in designing safer cars. And, while a black box on a jet can store data on dozens of flights, the boxes on motor vehicles vary widely in how much information they record and in how accessible it is to anyone other than manufacturers. Only General Motors, and to a lesser extent, Ford, have made information from their boxes easily accessible to third parties. The boxes are usually silver, not black, and about the size of a pack of cigarettes. Depending on their sophistication, they may constantly monitor speed, braking, seat-belt use and other factors. Recordings are made in five-second spans. What's captured is the final five seconds leading up to a crash, or to the instant the car's electronic brain determines an air bag should deploy. Similar technology has been used to create other car data recorders, such as those that now monitor crash forces felt by NASCAR (news - web sites) drivers. And several private firms have also begun marketing devices that can be added to vehicles to measure on-road performance of teens, taxi drivers and ambulance crews. GM gave a California company permission in 2000 to sell a computer program to download data. Since then, information from black boxes has been showing up more frequently in accident investigations and in court: * In January in Fort Myers, Fla., a black box caused jurors to question the prosecution's argument that John Robert Walker was speeding recklessly before a head-on crash with another vehicle. Two people died. Walker was found not guilty after a defense expert testified his truck's black box showed he was drivi