Black Box in Speeder's Car Helped Conviction

sessamoid writes "This article in Newhouse News tells the story of a man who was recently convicted of two counts of manslaughter and vehicular homicide each, partially on evidence obtained from the Electronic Data Recorder (EDR) in the car. EDR's are found in all cars with airbags to measure the performance and effectiveness of the airbags and the conditions in which they are used. In this case, the EDR revealed that the driver was not travelling at 60 mph, as he claimed, but actually peaked at 114 mph (in a residential neighborhood) just seconds before the collision. Could this be the forerunner of many such cases in the future, where our cars tell the unadulterated facts, rather than subjective personal accounts?"

Comments

this just in,

[pb]

as seen on slashdot, almost exactly one month ago.

Can we get a special section for reposts?

Re:Let him fry...

[D.A. Zollinger]

Unfortunately I disagree with your pessimism. To be very honest, I wholeheartedly agree with the usage of these devices. You must remember driving is a privilidge and a convenience. When people abuse that privilidge, it affects more than just the individual abuser.

Consider the argument that insurance companies do require access to your black box to evaluate your driving and assign rates to you. Those who drive safer will have lower rates as actuarials will be able to add another component to their calculations that will weed out unsafe drivers, and allow them to reduce rates to customers who drive better. Thank you capitalism, and competition!

I believe that there are too many cars on the road as it is. We need to beef up our public transportation, and reduce the number of drivers who abuse their privilidge to drive. If you can't drive safely, if you can't remember to buckle your seatbelt, if you are not paying attention to the speed limit, then perhaps you should be ticketed. Just because the police do not see you do it, does not mean that you should get away with breaking the law! Consider this; if those girls hadn't pulled out of their driveway when they did, this very reckless driver would still be on our roads! Would you want him driving 100+ miles per hour through your neighborhood? I can guarantee that this wasn't the only time he had driven that fast - one does not work up to those kinds of speeds easily.

Re:An even more likely cause of the "speed" readin

[arivanov]

Absolutely correct.

That is one of the inputs to bog standard traction control in modern cars. So there is no problem whatsover to determine if the wheels had or did not have traction if the relevant information has been recorded.

Actually, the most important bit in the article is that the defence tried to object to the data from the EDR on the basis that the vehicle has been modified to go faster then manufacturer specs. Frankly, if this has been done it should not have been let on the road and considered roadworthy without a full retune of all safety systems - trax, abs, airbag deployment, etc.

Considering that it is not a legal requirement to do so the enforcement is up to the insurance companies. Frankly, the person who sold this guy insurance without requiring that the vehicle go through a full safety reevalutaion is as guility as the guy himself. He should have got the same sentence.